AutoLife
by MoreThanMeetsTheEye231
Summary: It was an ordinary summer night. A small earthquake woke me up, or so I thought. I started to hear strange noises, so I went outside to investigate. From that moment on my life was definitely, more than meets the eye! Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers.
1. The Beginning

It was an average summer night. Cool and calm. Then suddenly a small earthquake hit. That's when I woke up. I was annoyed because I was having a great dream that I already couldn't remember. _Ugh!_ I thought to myself, lying in bed, so I shut my eyes and started my wait for sleep. Quite a while later, (I couldn't sleep) I heard the weirdest noise, almost like a metallic voice... I sat up and rubbed my eyes groggily. And sat, listening... there it was again! So I jumped down from my bunk bed, and went to the window. I couldn't see anything. Just the ally below, but there was that noise again! I had to investigate. So I got my robe on and slipped my phone into the pocket, just in case, and sneaked out the front door, and went around to the ally to see what was up.

_I'm doing anything bad... I'll be back in a minute... my parents will never know..._ I kept repeating to myself. When I rounded the corner I saw something that made me freeze in fear, 15 robots ranging in height from 2 stories and the size of a grown man. Most of them had what looked like guns all over themselves, including one with a menacing oversized black cylinder I assumed was a cannon on his arm. And judging by the way the others all seemed to be looking at him he was apparently the leader.

I made all these assumptions in the span of 10 seconds. I was paralyzed enough to not have the sense to run home then and there. I could hear the beat of my heart in my ears, and apparently, so could they, because one of the littler ones turned around and pointed at me yelling. That's when the cannon-leader-guy lunged over and scooped me up. His hand curled around me from my chest down to my knees. And he just held me there like King Kong with a pretty lady.

He gave me what looked like a smirk and said something in a strange language, I couldn't understand a word of it but I could imagine him saying "Look what we have here." They all started talking in the weird language. That's the sound I heard! Them talking! I felt really out of place, in the middle of all of these colorful, tough looking, weird giant robots. So I sat there, in sock monkey PJ's and a penguin robe being clutched in a black metallic hand. No matter how I squirmed the giant fingers didn't give an inch. I kicked him and all that earned me was a glance. So I decided to put my mind to something useful. _Now that they're in the light, they somehow seem familiar..._ I thought, looking at their faces.

_The leader had a black cannon on his arm, he was a robot, and from the looks of it, not so friendly to humans. Where have I seen this before? _Then it hit me, _G1! These guys are Decepticons from G1! Oh no! Decepticons! If I'm right, I'm in trouble!_

_ Decepticons are the bad guys in G1 … Wait, what am I saying! They can't be Decepticons! That's a cartoon! I'm going crazy, this is a dream- Wait I know, if one transforms they'll have to be Decepticons! Just then it seemed like Cannon-leader-guy had an idea, because he pointed to a guy that definitely made me think of G1 Soundwave and said something to him. Soundwave-looking-guy's chest opened up and out popped a little rectangle of metal, and then it just turned into a big bird, about the same height as me. Then I mentally said to myself Oh my god! They ARE Decepticons!_


	2. Deep Trouble

So now I knew what they were and without even thinking I whispered "Decepticons..." under my breath. That seemed to catch their attention because they all turned to look at me. And when 15 2 story robots are staring you down that's enough to make anybody scared. Then cannon-leader-guy who _had_ to be Megatron said something to me but of course I couldn't understand at all. He figured that out and said to Soundwave-looking-guy who actually was Soundwave, some more gibberish. Soundwave turned to me, stepped closer, and then it looked like he was thinking. About 30 seconds later he said something in what I guess was German. He looked at me for a minute, then thought some more, then said something in what I guess was Japanese. _Oh! He's trying to figure out my language! _I thought to myself. After about 20 more tries he said "Do you understand?" in plain English and I said "Y-yes." All the Decepticons looked relieved. And Soundwave said to me "So you speak English?" in a very weirdly emotionless, evil, computer-like voice. "Yes." I answered, my voice cracking. He said "I translate, but my English not so good, so figure out gaps." "Ok" I replied. Megatron spoke more gibberish to Soundwave and he said "What you say earlier?" "Decepticons" I replied. Apparently that needed no translation because then Megatron started a whole conversation through Soundwave:

"How you know what we are? We just crash on planet!" "Oh! That explains the earthquake! That was you crashing!" "That not answer my question. Where are we?" "I'm not sure I should tell you this, because as far as I know, you're the bad guys." That seemed to piss him off so he gave me a very painful squeeze and said through Soundwave once again: "Where _are_ we?" he meant business and I wanted to stay, you know, alive, so I told him "Earth. You're in the United States of America." "United what?" "How detailed do you want me to be?" "Much as possible, for your sake that better be lot of detail." I gulped and said "Ok, you're in Octomotro City which is in California, California is in the United States of America, and the USA is in North America, North America is one of the 7 continents on Earth, and Earth is in the Milky-way galaxy."

That took a while for Soundwave to translate but when he was done Megatron said through Soundwave "So this thing know about us and 'Earth'. We take with us. She could be of use." So he yelled at one of them that had to be Starscream, and Starscream turned into a weird alien aircraft. Then a hatch opened and Megatron walked towards him.


	3. Flight

So Starscream's hatch opened and Megatron lowered me down and set me inside. Then before I could even move, the hatch snapped shut. Inside it looked kind of like a jet cockpit except that there were no nicely upholstered seats, just metal slabs that resembled a park bench and there were no controls or a steering wheel. It was also much roomier.

Then he started to say something in gibberish, and then stopped realizing that I didn't understand. After a while he said in english "Is this the right language?" I replied "Yeah." "Good. Soundwave did the hard part." He had a kind of nasally, whiny voice. I was going to go nuts if I had to listen to him too long. His replies were a lot slower than Soundwave's because he took the time to figure out all the proper grammar. Soundwave wanted it to be quick, but the way Starscream saw it, he had plenty of time. "How do you guys figure out how to speak English?" I asked as polite as possible, because it's probably not a good idea to piss off a 2 story robot, especially if you're inside them. "We have an internet connection in our heads." he stated matter-of-factly. "Oh, I see. Why me? What's my value? I'm just a sqiushy right? " "Look at it like this, I don't know What goes on in that Moronitron's head but as far as I can tell he wants you because you are very familiar to our race." "But you don't think anyone else would know?" "Probably. But we don't know where to find them. You conveniently found us. Besides you know about the planet too." "Because I live here. Anyone would know this stuff. From here anyway." "We don't want to get too public. The Autobots might be here. We aren't gathered enough for an attack. Besides, a human attack would be annoying. Easily won, but annoying." I scowled unseen by him. Unfortunately, he was probably right. He continued saying, "We were out and about scouting. We stopped in the alley back there to chat and because we saw vehicles on the ground." "Yeah, probably regular cars. Pretty much every human has one." I was actually hoping I was wrong and It was the Autobots. They're the good guys and might help me get home. "Just to be safe. Like I said, we're not ready for a fight."

"So... you wouldn't happen to be Starscream by any chance would you?" I asked politely, I had to test my theory if these guys were actually G1 Decepticons, because if they were, I knew a lot about them. "Yes! How did you know?" he answered, shocked that I knew him. "I have my ways... how do you feel about your leader? Megatron right?" I asked, still probing. "Oh him. I should be leading! Not him! Ugh! He drives me mad!" he fumed. "Past attempts of taking over not working out so well huh? Does he throw you across the room and/or blast you every time?" "How do you know all this? I must know!" "Lucky guess, I guess."

Then our conversation was over, he knew I wasn't telling him everything and I was trying to figure out how to get out. He had a windshield on front but nothing to break it with, the slab benches were attached. I couldn't have thrown them anyway. And looking out of it we were too high for me to want to get down that way anyway. If I did, at this height, all I would be is a splatter. So I had to figure out something else. All the while I was getting farther and farther from home. I had to work fast!

Then Starscream jerked and screamed in pain, and he started to spiral downward. Another jerk and the windshield was busted. I got up off the cold gray floor and slid to the windshield. I looked down and we were still high, but if I didn't jump I was going to die in the crash anyway. So I climbed through the hole, gashing my left arm badly in the process, and walked out. I jumped, hoping Starscream wouldn't get me, screaming the whole way down. Then right before I thought I was going to go splat, something caught me, before I got a good look at my rescuer, I feinted.


	4. New Friends

I woke up with 2 faces over me talking in the same weird language, but they were different voices, and somehow sounded friendlier. I sat there a moment just lying there, and they seemed to realize I wasn't dead. There was a warm, wet feeling on my left arm, I looked. It was blood. I was lying on a huge metal bed which was way too big for me, and it felt like we were moving. I sat up. We were in what seemed like a huge rectangular room. One of the robots looked at me with a concerned expression. It was odd, but he had no mouth, just theses things on both sides of his face that lit up blue when he spoke. He started doing the same thing Soundwave did to me earlier that night. He was quicker though, it only took 16 guesses.

Once he'd figured out I spoke English, his friend said, "You're leaking. Will you let me patch you up?" "Ok" Their replies were slow as well. Not as slow as Starscream, but they had proper grammar. I was bleeding pretty badly so the fact that he wanted to help told me my night may have turned around. He pulled some fabric from a weird looking table and patched me up; he did a perfect job. "Sorry if I messed up a bit. I've only worked on robots before." He smiled sheepishly. He was mostly white and had a gray crest over his blue eyes. _How strange,_ I thought to myself, _He has blue eyes, as a matter of fact both of them do. The Decepticons had red eyes... Oh! These must be Autobots! The guy without a mouth is Wheeljack! And the guy who patched me up is Ratchet! ...I think... I'd better check._

"Umm, not to be rude or anything," I said sheepishly to the one who bandaged my arm, "But are you Ratchet by any chance?" "Why yes I am. How did you know my name?" "And you're Wheeljack?" I said to the other. "Yup. ...Have we met?" They both gave me a confused look. "No we haven't met." I replied to both. "Speaking of which, since I know your names, you'd probably like to know mine. I'm Hailey."

"Pleasure to meet you Hailey, I wish it were on better terms." Ratchet said graciously. "This is pretty good terms for me tonight. Might I ask, you 2 are Autobots right?" I said. "Right again." said Wheeljack. "And where are we going?" I asked politely. "We're going to our crashed ship. So we can repair our comrades after the battle we just had. And Prime couldn't leave you right after saving your life." said Ratchet. "Optimus Prime? He's my savior?" I asked enthusiastically. "Obviously you know him so I needn't explain him, but we saw the Decepticons and so we started shooting, naturally. Then Prime heard you screaming as you fell from Screamer, after he was shot by Cliffjumper and Mirage. And so he ran over and caught you, you fell limp in his hands and so he felt responsible for you. And he told me and Ratchet to watch you, since we still don't know what you are, or your intentions. So that's where we are now. In Optimus' trailer." explained Wheeljack. So this wasn't a room at all! It was Prime's trailer. I looked to my left, away from my 2 new Autobot friends and saw Roller sitting there. Suddenly we stopped. "We're here!" said Ratchet happily.


	5. Interrogation

We had arrived at the Autobots' crashed ship. I stood up and jumped off the table. "Oops, sorry about the blood puddle." I said seeing my red stain. "Don't worry, we'll probably examine it later anyways." said Ratchet. He put his hand on the floor of the trailer palm up, which meant he wanted me to step up. I gingerly stepped onto his palm. It was warm, which was weird since you expected metal to be cold. The trailer floor was. (You notice these things if you're barefoot like I was.) He lifted me up, and I almost lost my balance so I grabbed his thumb. He laughed and we were off.

There was an in-going traffic flow of about 30 or more vehicles. Ratchet walked in after the last one passed. And when we got inside I was amazed at what I saw. It was a giant ship with a big command room with a giant computer that had to be Teletraan 1. The walls were orange and they had a brown floor. We walked in to see somewhere around 40 alien-like hovering vehicles. Then I heard a voice from behind that was so friendly but commanding that it could only be Optimus Prime. Ratchet turned and sure enough there stood Optimus. He asked Ratchet something in gibberish and after Ratchet replied he looked down at me and said "It looks like our guest is up. Autobots! Transform and greet our guest! She speaks English." I turned around on Ratchet's palm and saw all of the vehicles transform into familiar faces, it made the night seem worth it, just to see it. I was passed from hand to hand until I had done a full circle around the room. Then Ratchet handed me to Optimus and Optimus said "You and Wheeljack have lots of repairs to do." "On it sir." said Ratchet. He and Wheeljack stepped away, half of the crowd following them, and the uninjured half dispersing to their duties.

Optimus took me down a hall past a lot of weapons, and into another room. "This is my quarters." said Optimus. I looked around at the neat and orderly room. There was a little desk with a computer and a light on it and he had a metal slab bed. He also had a window, all you could see through it now was rock, but if you were in space I was sure it would have been breath-taking. He set me on the desk. "

So Optimus, I'm guessing there's a reason you want me here. What's up?" I said looking up and the red and blue mech. "I brought you here because I felt that if I revealed a little about myself, you would feel better about doing the same." "You don't need to convince me Optimus. I know you're the good guys. I mean, one side kidnaps me and the other saves me. Not too hard to figure out." "Very true. Now, what planet are we on?" "Let me eliminate a few question marks here. You're in Octomotro City which is in California, California is in the United States of America, and the USA is in North America, North America is one of the 7 continents on Earth, and Earth is in the Milky-way galaxy. Or actually I'm no so sure about the Octomotro part, because I don't know how far the Decepticons took me, but the rest is right for sure." "Very informative. Thank you, and what is your name and species?" "I'm Hailey, and I'm a human." "And where do you get all of your information?" "Well, there are movies, TV series and even comic books about your war with the Decepticons." "Really? How?" "I don't really know. But the accuracy is incredible! Huh?" "More like alarming. Does anyone else know we exist?" "No." "Are you sure?" "Positive. But if you want to keep it that way you're going to need new alt modes, because alien hovercrafts are pretty weird on Earth." "What do humans have?" "Cars. I don't know how to explain it further. I'd suggest Google." "Google?" "It's a widely used search engine. I meant look it up online." "Well, we will have to find blueprints for Ratchet and Wheeljack to modify us, and even then it will be a long process... I think it might be best if you stayed here tonight." "I think so too. I haven't got a clue how to get home and I don't want those Decepticreeps to get me again. ...but my mother and father... I'll have to go home tomorrow." "We will get you home." "Promise?" "Definitely."


	6. Bed Time

"Autobots! Please meet in the command room." Prime announced over the com link. A com link is kind of like a walkie-talkie for us, but for them it's in their heads, so they can't exactly lose it, and that way they could always communicate, no matter where they were... pretty much.

By the time Prime had walked down the hall with me now sitting in his hand, everyone had gathered. "Our guest needs a place to stay for the night. Does anyone have any ideas for sleeping space?" asked Optimus of the whole room. "We could make a bed in the command room." "We could put her in med bay." Ideas were popping up all over the place, but Optimus brought order once more and said "We need a warm room, and I think it would be best if someone was in the room with her."

There was a long pause and someone said "She could stay in my quarters..." Optimus looked around and asked "Who said that?" "I did." And a small yellow mech raised his hand. "No one else was volunteering." he said sheepishly. "That's a splendid idea if you still want to go with it." assured Prime. "Sure." said the yellow bot, "I don't mind if she doesn't." "That's really sweet of you," I said "That'd be great!"I continued. "It's settled!" said Optimus. The yellow guy walked forward and Prime handed me to him. I didn't fit well in his hand at all, since he was pretty small so he put me on his shoulder. On the way there he said, "I heard you're psychic with names." "You could say that... Bumblebee." I replied wryly. "Wheeljack didn't lie. What's your name? Please tell the less psychic of us." retorted Bumblebee. I laughed and replied "Hailey."

"...Hey Bumblebee..." I said sheepishly. "Yeah?" He said curiously. "I've got the feeling we're going to see each other a lot and Bumblebee is kind of a mouthful... can I call you Bee? You know, as a nickname?" I asked quickly. "Bee... Yeah, I like it! Feel free." he said enthusiastically. "Thanks Bum- I mean Bee." We laughed together and entered his quarters. It wasn't huge but it was definitely comfy. There was this cozy air to it. He had a metal slab bed too and a desk with a computer, but much smaller than Prime's. He also had a light, but it was a colorful one as opposed to Optimus' office gray modern one. I could see their separate personalities already.

"So now comes the question of where to put you." said Bee. "I'd be happy with a corner and I can use my robe as a blanket." I stated. "No no no! You're my guest! You need better than that... hmm..." said Bee. "Do you like bunk beds?" Bee asked. "Yeah, it's what I've got at home, top bunk." I replied. "Then we can put you on my desk. That will be a little better, then you won't be stepped on... I'm sorry, it's not much." Bee said apologetically. "Bee, I've been through worse." and with that he set me on top of his desk and I spread my robe over me like a blanket, I could cover myself if I curled up. I lied on my left side. Ouch! I had forgotten about my cut, and hadn't even realized it hurt till now. I rolled over and rubbed my bloody bandage.

Bee fell asleep immediately, since he just has an off switch, and I fell asleep in 10 minutes. Turns out being kidnapped and skydiving without a parachute make a girl really tired.


	7. A Call Home

I was woken up at 8 am by Bee waking up. When I gave myself a look over in a mirror I saw that I still had bed head and I had escaped last night's mayhem with only the scratch on my arm and a big bruise on my forehead. (probably from when Optimus caught me; he _was_ metal after all.) I actually walked for a change to the command room. Prime was there, reading Cybertronian (the weird language they were all speaking) off Teletraan 1's screen. When he saw us walk in he said "How was your night?" Bee replied "Fine." and I said "Good. I slept like a rock." "Rocks sleep?" asked Prime. "Nevermind." I said, shaking my head.

We decided to see how the people in med bay were doing. I had agreed because I felt close to Ratchet and Wheeljack because they were to first 2 I met. "Hey look! Her legs _do_ work!" said Ratchet as we walked in. "Good morning to you too." I replied. "And you started it!" I said pointing at the CMO. He a comedically false shocked expression. Everyone in the room laughed.

Then Ratchet said "Oh yeah, Hailey, is this yours?" He was holding up a pink cell phone, it was tiny in his hand and he held it between his index finger and thumb. "Oh yeah! How did that survive? And where did you find it?" I asked. "It was Optimus' trailer; we found it when we went to clean up your blood. I hope you don't mind but we had our scientist examine it." explained Ratchet. "It was intriguing. Lots of microscopic cells in it!" said the scientist, walking into the room. "Hi Perceptor." I said. He looked at me, stricken. "You did not lie, she is indeed how you say 'psychic'." said Perceptor. "I love your reactions when I say your names. It's so funny!" I said. "More like scary!" said a bot on a medical bed with a malfunctioning leg. He had a ghetto-ish accent and didn't have eyes; it looked more like blue futuristic glasses. "Maybe. ...Jazz!" I said playfully. "That's just scary man." said Jazz.

Ratchet handed me my cell phone. It had a new scratch on the back along it diagonally, but considering what it had been through and that it was still working was good enough for me. "Hey! I can call my parents with this!" I realized. "Then do so!" said Bee. I punched in my mom's number and waited. Thank god I had reception. She picked up and said "H-hello?" like she had just been crying.

"Mom, it's Hailey." "Hailey? Where are you? Come home!" "I will mom, once I figure out where I am. My new friends will give me a ride home tonight." "Tonight? No, now Hailey!" "I can't mom, they're too noticeable. We'll be better off at night." "What do you mean?" "I'll see you tonight and I'll explain everything." "Hailey?"

And I hung up. Now it was my turn to cry. I was crying at all the pain I was causing my family. If only I had just ignored that stupid sound!


	8. Homecoming

After I finished with my waterworks and I'd walked to see Prime, Wheeljack slogged in. "I finished sir. I made a machine that will modify us all for Earth. I had to stay up all night to do it, but I did it. We just need to feed in the design specs and then walk in and it'll do the rest. So everyone has to pick out a car to transform into. Then instead of us doing it manually and taking weeks, we can do it in a few hours!" explained a very tired Wheeljack. "Then we'll get everyone on it. Autobots! Go to your quarters, all of you, and find design specs for the Earth car you want as your alt mode, but be practical. I don't want to see any limos!" Prime announced the last part over the com link.

An hour later of hacking into car dealership sites, everyone went and got modified. Another 2 hours later everyone was Earth-ified. I went around and suggested an alt mode to everyone. Now they had the same alt modes as in G1. Of course there were a few non-cars around like Perceptor (microscope) and Blaster (boom box). As soon as Wheeljack was modified, he disappeared into his quarters for the rest of the day, getting the rest he had more than earned. Then Prime and I used Teletraan 1 to get on Google Earth and find out how to get me home.

At 8pm Optimus transformed into a big red truck with his trailer. He wasn't completely car like because if you looked closely, you could see the sections that popped out or twisted to turn into a robot. The inside was a lot like Starscream's because it had the metal benches too and of course, no steering wheel. I climbed in and we were off. We arrived at 8:30pm. Once we got to Vartanian Street (on which I live) I told Optimus to stop out of sight of the house. I stepped out and told him to wait there; I didn't want to overwhelm my family too much. When I walked up to the garage my mom, dad, sister, and even my dog were all sitting, waiting. I ran up to them and got lots of hugs and kisses. Then my parents demanded an explanation, so I peeled myself from their arms and ran to get Prime. I came back walking beside a big red truck, and my parents didn't really get it, or my sister. "Show 'em." I said to Prime. He transformed and my parents were sitting there gaping in fear, Taylor was looking up at him in awe, then she burst out, "That was AWESOME!" and started jumping around. Prime knelt down and picked up my family. (except the dog, she ran and hid.) Then I told my parents the story. They couldn't doubt the facts since they were standing in the palm of a giant robot's hand.

After we were done he set my family down but kept me a minute to give me a weird walkie-talkie looking thing, and said that it was tuned into the Autobot com link. Then he put me down and everyone walked inside.


	9. Kidnapped

Amazingly enough, my parents _didn't_ kill me and dance on my grave. My sentence was for the whole family to sleep together for a week. I guess they missed me too much to get too angry.

Every day I was carted off to The Autobots' crashed ship, which was now their Earth base. Turns out that they had crashed at Rocky Peak and the hiking trail was closed because the "earthquake" caused a rock slide. It was on top of the Autobot ship, but of course the humans didn't know that. The Autobots managed to disguise the ship in the rocks so it looked like part of the mountain, they had to move a giant boulder to get in but that was the only hitch. So when the trail opened again, they were safely hidden from human and Decepticon detection.

Of course after a week my parents were tired of watching a driver-less car take me who knows where. So they came with me one day and were overwhelmed by the number of robots I hung out with. After 2 weeks Cassidy (my dog) stopped running and hiding every time an Autobot transformed but would instead watch from a distance. A great distance at that, but it was still an improvement.

Wheeljack made me a chip to put behind my ear. It was my own com link, and it worked like a charm. Ratchet knocked me out and surgically put it behind my ear. My parents weren't too happy in the beginning but when Wheeljack explained it was a safety measure, they accepted it. It was small and you couldn't see it unless I folded my ear forward. 3 days later Cassidy let Bumblebee pet her.

It was all going good until week 3. My cut had finally healed with tons of care from both my mom and ratchet. I was walking the dog with Taylor when suddenly I heard a loud noise from above. I turned around just in time to see a black jet zooming at us. Before I could move it scooped me up and I dropped the leash. It was Skywarp. Weirdly enough all the Decepticons had their G1 alt modes too. They kept their colors from the night I met them, and they now had Earthly alt modes. I guess G1 was _very_ accurate.

Anyway I was kidnapped and I got all the way to their base this time. It was a giant purple ship with a purple and black interior. Skywarp threw me down at Megatron's feet. "I've been working on my English just for you." said Megatron maniacally. I wasn't as scared this time, considering I hung out with giant robots daily now. I got up and sprinted for the door, "Shut it!" Megatron screeched. But he was too late. I slid through at the last second. I ran down the hall until I found a door, but Thundercracker was behind it, so I dove through his legs. I ran until I got to the next door and slammed it in his face. I could just reach the controls if I jumped. So I ran around this way and that meeting almost every Decepticon in the base (at least it seemed that way to me) and eventually I finally got to the front door, but I needed a code for that one, so I hid.

I squeezed into the barrel of one of the guns in the arms room I ran into. I barely fit. The gun was obviously heavy duty. It was 2/3 the size of Megatron's cannon, in barrel diameter that is. The ship was locked down, I had no way out. I had had just enough time to squeeze down the barrel of the gun before Dirge walked in, looking for me. I sat there silent, barely daring to breathe. He looked around and never even thought of the guns. As soon as I knew he was out of the room and out of earshot I used my com link to contact the Autobots.

I told them exactly where I was. I hid and listened to the commotion outside. 5 people came to recheck the room including Megatron. At one point I heard Megatron barking orders at everyone and blaming everyone else for me getting away. He was yelling at them that I should have been expected to not be frozen in place like before. After a half hour wait I heard banging and yelling, over the battle din I could hear Megatron screeching "Destroy the Autobots!" Eventually an Autobot managed to slip into the arms room and steal the gun I was inside. The Autobots then retreated and we had to do some pretty weird maneuvers to get the Decepticreeps off our tail. Once we had lost them and returned to base Prime commended me for my bravery and cleverness.

I returned home with blackened skin and clothes.


	10. Armed

Over the first month I really got close with most of the Autobots. I learned a lot about them all. For instance, never play hide-and-seek with Mirage and Hound. Mirage always turns invisible and Hound fakes you out with holograms. I learned that Jazz is a great break dancer and that he and Blaster love music, especially Owl City. I also learned that I shouldn't be surprised if I hear explosions. You get used to it if you have Wheeljack as your inventor.

I got close enough that Wheeljack thought I should be armed. "She can't go on being defenseless!" pleaded Wheeljack to Prime. "I'm not so sure that we should hand a 14 year old girl a gun." said Prime. "I agree. That could be bad if she left it behind somewhere or didn't have a place to carry it; she can't exactly be seen walking through the mall with an alien gun." "I take it you have an idea?" "Yup! We make her a choker, but it's not really a choker. It looks innocent, but when she pulls it off, it splits in half. One half is a null ray that can take away power from any machine. It could immobilize a Decepticon for 1 minute or turn off an alarm. It would be a great way to finally be able to use null ray technology in combat, as opposed to the old trip-wire booby trap. Because, in case you forgot, if we use a null ray the Decepticon will go down, but we will too! The other half is a regular blaster for kicking Decepticon skid-plate. As for the trigger, it's a button. All she'd have to do was flip up the cover. And once she's done, it clips back together." "I like the idea, but we'll have to see if it's actually possible, and get it approved by Hailey and her parents." "On it."

Of course I didn't know about this conversation until later. Wheeljack asked my parents and they gave their approval, but it would have to be _completely_ safe, especially since it was going around my neck. When he came to ask me, I of course agreed, because, seriously, what kid wouldn't? So he took my neck measurements and brought out some scrap metal, and got to work. It took a lot of tries. How do I know? Well, let's just say there were lots of explosions that day.

* * *

He'd gotten permission that morning around 6:00am, and that night at 11:00pm he contacted me on my new com link chip saying he was coming to pick me up. I got dressed groggily and walked out to the garage. By that time I wasn't groggy anymore so I asked for an explanation on the way to the base. I didn't need to tell my parents anymore because they got accustomed to these midnight Autobot calls. I just left a note on my pillow. It simply read "I'm at Ark. Wheeljack came around midnight. Be back soon. -Hailey"

He wouldn't tell me but just said "It's a surprise." When we showed up he took me straight to his lab. Then he presented me with a shiny silver ring. I knew what it was immediately, so I took it from his fingers and turned it over in my hands. "I finished." he said proudly. "How does it work?" I asked politely. "See the gray button back here? That's how you unlock it, hit it and it will come apart in your hands. When you wear this put this in the back so it's hidden." "Ok." I said pushing the button. It did exactly as he said; it split into 2 perfect halves. "Ok. Now, see those 2 small cracks?" "Yeah." "Put your fingernail in that and pull up, that will open the cover to you trigger buttons." I did as he said and a little cover flipped up on a dainty hinge to reveal a thumb-sized button on each half. One was purple and one was orange. "The purple one is the null ray, and orange is your blaster." Wheeljack explained. "To put them back together, hit the button again and the 2 halves will automatically snap in place." "I want to try these out so bad!" I said gleefully. "Then hit this." he said picking up a lamp. "Use your null ray." He held it out way to his left and I shot, I missed and it hit a light on the roof. "You definitely need practice," said Wheeljack setting the lamp back down again. "You can practice with Cliffjumper; he's our best sharpshooter." He said while I snapped the covers shut and clicked the necklace in place.

For the next week, I practiced with Cliffjumper with my gun outside all day. Whenever a hiker came by he'd just transform. We got lots of weird looks but that's all. On the third day of the week, I finally hit the rock I was aiming for. It just went up-hill from there. By the end of the second week, I was just as good as any Autobot.


	11. Kidnapped Again

I apparently couldn't have learned at any better time, because the next day the Decepticreeps got me again. When I was brought to the base this time, I had some defense; of course I couldn't take on a whole room of Decepticons all by myself. They put me in a cage so I couldn't run this time. They had this weird machine that was supposed to scan my brain so they could have my information about the transformers. I of course couldn't let that happen, so when their backs were turned, I unhooked my necklace, and used my blaster on the machine, it blew up, and while they were trying to figure out what happened, I used that second to clip my necklace on again. When Megatron turned around it seemed like I was just sitting there weaponless. Little did he know, I was the one who sabotaged his machine. So he had to keep me long enough to fix the machine, he moved me into a jail cell that was, of course, way to big for me. Once he was gone I used my com link that he still didn't know about to contact Prime again. I used my null ray on the door of the cell, so as soon as the Autobots got there I could join in the fight. After another half hour they arrived, breaking down the door again and the battle ensued. Once the last Decepticon had gone to join the battle, I left and followed the sound of blasters to the fight. They were in all-out war. I was standing behind the fight and because I was so small, nobody seemed to notice me. So I started taking out Decepticons with my null ray. They just kept falling, and I eventually cut a path for me to get to the door. I yelled, but nobody heard, so I said over my com link, "I'm at the door!" Optimus turned to look and sure enough I was standing there. So the Autobots retreated again. We lost them much quicker this time because half of the Decepticons were still out on the base floor, courtesy of my null ray.


	12. Autobotified

The Decepticons seemed to have given up on getting me after 3 tries. So they started scheming, and for a while, it was quiet. The war was almost at a standstill. I used this time to introduce "Movie Night" everyone seemed to like it, and I, of course, took the first 2 nights to show the Transformers movies by Michael Bay. They loved them, but were a bit scared at the fact that they had a movie, and never even knew. Also, Jazz didn't like the first one nearly as much as the rest, which is understandable, considering he died.

I was guinea pig to a bunch of Wheeljack's experiments. I was trapped in a bubble, made temporarily unable to move, and I even became an Autobot for a day. That one started quite the chain reaction.

Wheeljack had made a body, it was gray and white, and it seemed to be a girl. When he told me that he was going to put me in it I thought he meant all of me, but it was just going to be my mind. He hooked me up to a machine that was also hooked up to the body. He flipped it on and it felt like I was vibrating inside my skin, then there was a flash of light, then I felt nothing. When feeling did come back, it didn't feel right. I opened my eyes and sat up. I was dizzy so I looked at the floor. _Hey, why are my feet gray?_ I thought to myself, but then before I had even finished my thought I realized that I WAS the body now. I turned and saw myself lying limp in a chair. "Now that's weird" I said aloud. I now had a metallic, but feminine voice, I sounded like a robotic 20-year-old. "It works!" said Wheeljack, jumping up and down like a little girl. I stood up, I was really high, and everything was actually my size for once.

I decided to see what Prime thought of my new look. So I told Wheeljack so and walked out. He followed, trying not to laugh. I walked up and said "Hello there Optimus!" brightly. "Have we met?" he asked, very confused, he wasn't worried though, since I had the Autobot logo. "You forgot me already? It's Hailey!" I said playfully. "Hailey? How...?" he said completely baffled now. "This is one of Wheeljack's experiments." I explained. "Oh." he replied. Suddenly it all made sense.

Once I had met everyone, Wheeljack said, "You know, no Autobot is an Autobot until they have a weapon and alt mode." I said "I don't really think my current weapon will do me much good now." "Let's fix that." he replied. So we went to the arms room, and got me a blaster. It hooked nicely to my hip. Then he walked to his computer in the lab and said "What should your alt mode be?" "What do I have to choose from?" I asked. "You can be any machine you can think of, but I would stick to something the size of a car." He replied. "Well I honestly want to be a plane, but that's just not Autobot so I have a car I'd like." I said. "Ok, what car? And I'm guessing you'd like a better paint job?" "If possible, and no trouble, I'd like to be a Chevy 2010 Camaro. And I want the dark blue paint with sparkles in it." I replied. He typed for a bit and did some digging, and he eventually pulled up 2 windows. One had a picture of a car and the other was paint. "Is this the right car and color?" He asked. "It's exactly perfect!" I said happily. "Then step into the modification chamber he said. He punched the keys and the doors opened. I stepped in, not knowing what to expect. Then something jabbed me and I was off. When I came to, I was blue and I was still in the chamber. Then the doors opened and I stepped out.

"Wow." said Wheeljack when I stepped out. His blue eyes were the size of saucers, literally. I said, "Ok, I've got my gun and my alt mode. ...and my friend gawking at me. What's wrong?" "oh- umm- n-nothing." he stammered. "You think I'm attractive huh?" I said wryly. "No! I mean I would never- yeah. Kinda." he babbled. I laughed and said "It's ok, I won't tell. Now, how do I transform?" "You just-... you gotta-... I dunno how to explain it. I just kinda do it... I guess you just think it..." he rambled. "Oh great. Well, I'll try." I thought about a blue Camaro as hard as I could and suddenly I just started moving involuntarily. I opened my eyes and I was low to the floor, and I looked up and said "What just happened?" to Wheeljack and he calmly replied, "You just transformed." he gave me a smug smile and said "Wanna go for a drive?" "Race ya!" I yelled and I zoomed out the door. I looked back and I saw a white sports car behind me so I knew Wheeljack accepted my offer. We sped down the mountain road. I don't even know how I drove, I just thought about going forward and I did, like walking or in my case at that moment, sprinting.

So I went around Octomotro that day with Wheeljack. When we got back it was about the time I usually left. Usually I ate breakfast before I left home, brought a lunch and ate with everyone else in the galley. (Wheeljack had made solar panels disguised as boulders so they had an ample supply of energon, which is their basic fuel.) Then I would usually leave a few hours before dinner. So I called my mom on my cell phone, which was a challenge at my current size and asked to stay the night so Wheeljack could study the effects of the experiment I was "helping him with." She agreed so I stuck around. So when dinner rolled around I just stayed in the lab, not knowing what to do. Wheeljack was in the room with me and when he opened the door and saw that I had made no move to get up he stopped and asked "What's wrong?" "I'm not sure what to do." I said sadly. "Well come to the galley of course!" he answered brightly. "But-" "No buts. Come on!" he grabbed my arm and towed me to the galley. Sideswipe looked up when we came in and cat-called playfully. Everyone else looked up and did the same, well most except for the more high-brow and Optimus.

I sat with Wheeljack and it was pretty awkward for me, but of course I didn't say that. A few minutes later Mirage had galley duty that night so he came to us with 2 energon cubes. After he walked away, Wheeljack and I each had a cube in front of us. Of course, it wasn't a full cube, more like a quarter of one, full cubes are huge! "I don't need one. This awkward, can I go back to the lab?" I said to Wheeljack even though if I were human my stomach wouldn't be growling but roaring. "You're an Autobot now remember? Just try it." he said. I knew he wasn't going to budge. But I looked down at my hands, and he was right. I was an Autobot now. I would just take a nibble, to please him. I looked around to figure out what to do since I'd never dealt with energon before. It looked as if most just broke off a corner and ate it. Wheeljack did so, and when he put it to where his mouth would be (if he had one) and it just kind of melted through his faceplate. Then he was silent but I could Imagine him saying "Your turn." so I broke off a corner, It was cool and smooth. Then I put it into my mouth. It just melted away, but it was incredibly sweet. Then Wheeljack asked "Like it?" "I love it! But I feel guilty. It's your energon." I said sheepishly. "It's yours. Do I have to get Prime over here or are you just gonna eat you energon?" "Fine." Once we were both done I went to bed on the table in the lab where I had first become a robot. It's much easier to fall asleep when you have an off switch.


	13. Cascade, Jolt, Jag, and Karma

When I woke up I felt funny again. I opened my eyes and everything was huge again. I looked at my hands, they weren't metal. I was human again. I climbed onto the table and examined my new body until Wheeljack walked in. "Hey, you're tiny again!" he said surprised to see my human body walking around. "Weird huh?" I replied. It turns out that when I go to sleep, I revert to being human.

Wheeljack thought the experiment went over so well, he asked Prime permission to make Autobot bodies for my whole family, and com link earbuds. Prime immediately agreed on the earbuds, but was hesitant about the bodies. He wanted to see the effects that the transfer had on me, so he had Ratchet give me a full physical examination. I then transferred into the body and did some target practice observed by Prime. When I went back, Ratchet examined me again and said the only change was in energy level, so transferring tired me out, no big deal.

Wheeljack finished the earbuds by the time I had to go home, so he drove me. After explaining the earbuds to my parents, he asked them about the bodies, explaining their use and effects on humans. They reluctantly agreed, saying that it would be better for safety if we could defend ourselves. Wheeljack left telling them to decide on alt modes, color, and name.

When we all showed up at the base we had all decided. They hooked us up one at a time and we all transferred to our new bodies. Mom and dad thought it was strange and Taylor was looking at herself and the room. Then Wheeljack and Prime walked us all to the arms room where my mom and dad got blasters and hooked them to their hips. Taylor picked out an electro whip instead, (which I was kind of happy about, since I didn't trust her with a gun.) and hooked it to her hip. Then we walked to the modification chambers and my family told Wheeljack their alt modes and color. Wheeljack typed and pulled up their perfect cars. He punched the keys on the chambers and they all stepped into their set of doors. My family took up the whole machine, since there were 3 chambers.

10 minutes later my family stepped out. My dad's alt mode was a dark purple Viper. My mom was a light smoky green Jaguar. Taylor was a glossy red motorcycle. "What are your Autobot names?" asked Prime. "I'm Jaguar, or Jag for short." said my mom. "I'm Karma." said my dad. "I'm Jolt!" said Taylor. "I'm Cascade." I said. "Let's go for a test drive." said Wheeljack. He and Prime transformed immediately, I was delayed but I still did it ok. "Just think about your alt modes as hard as you can." I told my family. After another 30 seconds my parents were cars, Taylor still stood as a robot. We waited another 30 seconds and Taylor went. "COOL!" Jolt said enthusiastically.

We laughed and we were off, we were in a single file line, Prime, Wheeljack, me, Karma, Jolt, and Jag. "Wait! Jolt is a riderless motorcycle!" I realized. "Not to worry, Cascade." said Wheeljack coolly. "Turn on your hologram projector Jolt! Just think about it, just like transforming!" A few seconds later and Jolt had a rider with a black motorcycle helmet and black leather riding suit with long brown hair flowing from underneath the helmet, when we stopped, the hair would go down to her butt.

Once we got back, it was lunchtime and Prime insisted we stay and have some energon. Of course my family loved it. After dinner, we went to sleep at the base and woke up that morning as humans. We decided that we should go home and relax that day since yesterday was pretty weird. Jazz and Cliffjumper took us home and we spent that day having fun, but as humans this time.

My whole family was doing target practice for the next few days, I had to get used to an all new gun. My necklace and a blaster were 2 separate entities. My parents improved quickly, they weren't sharpshooters, but they could definitely nail some Decepticons. Taylor was a prodigy with her whip, I guess it's a lot easier than a gun.


	14. Powerglide Going Home

Wheeljack decided to even take another step further. We now knew that human could go to Autobot, but could Autobot go to human? A few modifications and we were ready to test that theory. We decided to have somebody switch bodies with me and we needed a volunteer. Powerglide, one of the only Autobot planes, decided he wasn't having enough human interaction so he said he'd do it.

Wheeljack hooked us up and flipped the switch, I felt same tingling inside my skin, the flash of light, and the numbness, then the weird feeling I now called "robo-touch." I turned my head and saw my little body, open its eyes, sit up, then look at me, dazed. "Welcome to the world of the itty-bitty fleshies." I said in Powerglide's voice. "That was really weird." said Powerglide in my voice. I picked him up and as I did so, he just said "Whoa!" "Welcome to my world." I replied. Wheeljack laughed at our awkward conversation and led us out to see somebody, anybody who didn't know about our experiment. Jazz was the first we met. "Hey jazz." I said brightly. "Hi Powerglide. What are you smiling about Hailey?" he said looking down at Powerglide sitting in my palm. "Oh... nothing." he said giggling. "What am I missing here?" Wheeljack burst out laughing so we had to explain. Once we'd finished he said, "That was nice. I'll give you that."

That was when I realized, "Hey! I'm a plane!" So I put down Powerglide and ran outside. I transformed and lifted off. It was a lot harder to fly then to drive but I quickly got the hang of it. I was doing loop-the-loops and corkscrews, then diving down and then riding up again. I came back 20 minutes later, feeling exhilarated. "I knew you were gonna do that at some point." said Powerglide coolly.

We were bored so we decided to go bug Sunstreaker and Sideswipe, prank the pranksters. We did the same trick we had played on Jazz this morning, but we drew it out longer and got them way more annoyed. When we finally spilled the beans we hatched a plan for the greatest prank ever. Powerglide would go home as me, and fake my family out, then when I went to bed I'd automatically be switched back to my own body, and Powerglide to his. So in the morning when my parents started chewing me out for how obnoxious I'd been that night, I'd call Wheeljack on the com link tomorrow and he'd tell my parents the truth, I'd been at the base all night.

So we clued him in at lunch (turns out Powerglide really likes PB&J sandwiches) and he was all for it. So that night Wheeljack took Powerglide to my house and he acted very snooty and very much like Powerglide. As an example, here's the conversation at bedtime; "Hailey time for bed," my dad called. "I'm an Autobot, I don't think bedtimes apply." Powerglide called back. "Hailey, don't get snooty because of your new set of friends." He called again. "I'm not! I _am_ an Autobot!" "Hailey, I know about the bodies, but you're not in it right now, so you are _not_ an Autobot!" "But I am!" "No you're not!" "Am so." "Are not!" "Are so!" "Go to bed!" "Night!" Then he went to sleep. He thought it sucked since he had to wait for half an hour; he was used to an off switch.

That morning, my dad started yelling at me for last night, saying that I had been very arrogant. I said "How was I snooty? I thought I was being very gracious."

"That's not funny Hailey."

"I wasn't bad at all! Honest! I'll call Wheeljack to prove it!"

"He wasn't here last night, Hailey."

"Exactly! Wheeljack, was I good last night?" I asked over the com link.

"You were a wonderful guest." He replied over the com link.

"Guest? What are you talking about? She was here." my dad said over the com, very confused.

"No, she was here all night." Wheeljack replied.

My dad was absolutely baffled, so I took mercy on him and told him what was up. "So, as you can see, Powerglide- or me, whatever you consider it as, was telling the truth, I was an Autobot at that point." My dad smiled, and I knew that he knew I was just kidding.

That night when I came home my dad asked "You're Hailey right? No surprise visits from Jazz or something?" We both laughed and sat down to dinner.


	15. Into the Fray

A few nights later, the standstill was broken. Cassidy ran into my room and jumped on top of Taylor; asleep in her bed (she has bottom bunk). Because of that she woke up saying "Oof!" loudly, and that woke me up. We wondered why the poor dog seemed so shaken, so we went across the hall into my parents' room to tell them about the dog. When we walked in, there was a gaping hole in the ceiling and they weren't in their bed and the blankets were gone. It didn't take long to piece together what happened. We immediately contacted Optimus over the com link and he rushed over to pick us up.

Once Taylor and I arrived at the base, everyone was wide awake. I told Optimus, "Put me and Taylor into our Autobot bodies! We've got to get to the Decepticreeps' base and save them, and Taylor and I are _not_ staying behind." "It's too dangerous. Just because you're an Autobot doesn't mean you're invincible. You could die just as easily as any of us." "I'm fully aware of that, but I'm not sitting around waiting. That's my _parents_, and I hate feeling helpless! Take us with you!" My eyes were watering at this point, and Taylor stood behind me and looked up at Optimus watery-eyed as well. He hesitated and said "You heard them Wheeljack. Get Cascade and Jolt ready for battle."

Once we were Autobot-ified we rolled out for the Decepticons' base at top speed. When we got there we busted down the door yet again. Me and Jolt rushed forward and stood on either side of Optimus. I was appalled and outraged because Megatron had put my parents in a cage like animals. As if that wasn't bad enough, He was holding them at gunpoint, or more like cannon point. The big, black, ugly barrel was pointed directly at my quaking parents. "We've been expecting you." said Megatron with a smug smirk. "If you want to keep these pathetic insects alive, you will cooperate. "As if!" I yelled. "Female Autobots? I thought they were extinct." sneered Megatron. I pointed my gun at his face and he calmly said "I wouldn't if I were you." pushing his cannon closer to my parents. I lowered my gun and Megatron smirked and said "That's it, be a good girl and just give up now." he chided, toying with me.

Then, over the com Cliffjumper said (unheard by the Decepticons) "I just arrived, I have the girls' bodies. It didn't feel right ditching 'em." Since I was a robot now, I didn't have to speak to use my com, so I told Cliffjumper "Perfect. I want you to take off my choker and toss it to me. Don't ask, just do it." 10 seconds later a silver ring came flying from the back of the crowd, nobody seemed to notice except me. I jumped and grabbed and instantly all eyes were on me, I flipped up the dainty cover and took aim with my null ray then fired. I hit Megatron square in the chest, and he and I were out on the floor.

The battle immediately ensued and I woke up as a human inside Cliffjumper. I jumped up and dragged my sister out. "Go! Go fight!" I yelled. He seemed happy to oblige and ran forward into the fray. I also ran forward to my limp robot body. I grabbed my necklace, and clipped it into place. I looked back at my sister; I had to protect her so she had a body to go back to. My robot body had fallen against the wall on its side. I pulled Taylor up into the little cavity between Cascade's stomach and the wall and left to join the fight because Taylor now had a bullet shield.

I started to use my null ray on every Decepticon in my sight. That made the battle easier for the Autobots since there were less people shooting at them. The Decepticons eventually figured out that I was a problem, so they tried to take me out. I dodged energy bullet after energy bullet. Eventually I was hit in the leg. I then limped back to Cascade and hid with Taylor. I kept shooting hidden behind Cascade; I was ignoring the pain and warm trickle down my leg. My range was a lot less, so I couldn't nail as many so I started using my null ray on somebody, then blasting them until they rebooted.

After 15 minutes there were a lot of Autobots and Decepticons on the floor. I decided this had to end so I sucked up my pain and sprinted unnoticed to my parents' cage, blasted the lock and ran them back to Cascade. "I've got my family hidden by Cascade, but Taylor is just a limp flesh bag and I have a lame leg. Not to mention all our wounded on the floor. And the fact that we gotta get Cascade out of here. We're in quite the Pickle." "Affirmative." said Optimus "We need to start carting out our wounded. Those of you who can, transform and get to base, those of you who cannot, try to get into my trailer. I will transport you. Everyone else, keep fighting to buy time for the weak to get out." "What about the humans and Cascade?" Asked Jazz, sitting on the floor still firing. (He had one leg. The other was lying a few feet away from him) "Get the humans into the injured cars. Cascade gets put into the trailer. Now go!"

After another 5 minutes everyone who was injured was either crammed into the trailer, or out at a safe distance headed home. "Autobots! Retreat!" called Optimus. We went home with no Decepticons following us, their leader was still out cold, thanks to repeated shots with my null ray, and they were all damaged badly as well.

When we got to base we immediately unloaded the most injured and Ratchet and Wheeljack got to work immediately, even though being damaged themselves. They didn't even spend the time to fix them fully, just enough so they could go on functioning. Once everyone was in this state of just functioning (Except Jolt. They just switched Taylor to being human again.) they turned their attention to me; it had been a few hours since the fight. As soon as I was back, Ratchet had quickly cleaned and bandaged the wound in my hip and left it at that. Now he took off the almost entirely crimson bandage and cleaned off the blood again. Ratchet and Wheeljack would have to fix me since I couldn't go to the doctor. They would ask what happened and that would not be good, they'd probably send us to a psycho ward for 'thinking' there were giant alien robots waltzing around on Earth. This was going to be interesting since they only had spare metal to work with and had never done surgery on a human before.

The bullet had shattered most of my thigh bone. They knocked me out and started working. When I came to, I felt very funny in my right leg where I had been shot. I looked and my leg looked pretty normal except for what looked like a big long weirdly shaped cut. It was an arc that was very squiggly. "We had to reconstruct your leg. What you see there is a rubber mixture used as fake skin in humanoid robots on Earth. The 'scar' is the seam. If you put your fingernail into the cut and pull up you will see that you now have circuitry in your body." explained Wheeljack somberly. I did as he said and sure enough my "skin" came up like the covers to my trigger buttons on my necklace. It wasn't like a regular human leg and had a space inside the size of my cell phone. (This cavity would later come in handy at school, except for when my cell phone was hidden inside and it went off in class. _That_ was an interesting conversation. And I got detention. But the space was actually meant to make it more accessible for maintenance.) It was all cold dark gray metal. "You're going to have to clean it out once in a while." said Ratchet. I now had to live the rest of my life with a metal leg. I had to basically learn to walk all over again; the robotic leg was nothing like my human leg. I figured out how to walk completely normally within the week. I didn't have to worry about swimming though, my leg was completely waterproof until 50 meters below the water (so was my necklace). My hatred for the Decepticons had reached an all-time-high.


	16. Starting the Scheme

I woke up screaming again. For the past 2 weeks I had had a re-occurring nightmare than in a different way every time, Megatron had killed everyone I cared about, including the Autobots. He had dipped them in lava, hacked them to dust, and many other horrible things.

Later that day when I went to the Autobot base a big decision had been made, and a plan hatched. The Decepticons had been on the offense all the time and the Autobots were playing search and rescue, so they decided to switch it up. The Autobots had asked our parents permission to use me and my sister for a spying mission earlier that morning, and surprisingly enough they agreed. The Autobots told me and Taylor to come dressed in clothes we wouldn't mind ruining.

That afternoon, a group of Autobots led by Jazz left for Decepticon headquarters with me riding in Bumblebee. When they got there, Rumble and Frenzy were standing guard. Rumble and Frenzy are 2 of Soundwave's cassettes. They transform and then they go into his chest because Soundwave is a tape deck. They managed to get Hound and Mirage pretty close without being detected. Hound took me off his shoulder and set me on the ground, still concealed within his hologram of a boulder. I took aim and used my null ray on Rumble and Frenzy. They went down with no sound other than a slight clank when they hit the ground.

Mirage snuck up, and dragged them away. We put them into hound and I had to keep shooting them so they wouldn't come to and call for help. I had to be very careful about how I did it as to not shut down Hound as well. It was actually pretty scary riding with 2 Decepticons, even if they're out cold and about your size. I didn't want to be on the receiving end of Rumble's pile-drivers. (He could turn his arms into pile-drivers to create earthquakes. Hence the name Rumble.) Once we got them back to base and contained they were still out but I kept my distance and kept shooting once about every 20 seconds to each.

Wheeljack hooked Rumble and me to his mind transfer machine and turned on the power. It took a while for me to wake up because I had shot Rumble so many times with my null ray. When I finally did wake up I looked down at my blue metal hands. I was Rumble now. Wheeljack did the same for Taylor and Frenzy. I looked over to the corner of the room and saw myself in a cage. Rumble was looking around the room wildly and he yelled "What the? How in Cybertron did I get here?" Then Rumble looked at my (or his) hands and at himself, and he saw me standing across the room from him in his body and he gave me a look of utter confusion. He didn't know about Wheeljack's machine and we wanted to keep it that way. We had taken off my necklace and turned off my com link, we couldn't take it off though so we hoped he wouldn't notice. We also took Taylor's ear bud.

So Rumble and Frenzy were in a cage as little human girls. I almost felt bad for them. But there was no time for sympathy; we had to start our plan. Taylor and I were going to go back to the base and learn what the Decepticreeps were planning. The only problems were that we had to keep our charade and we were on our own. There couldn't be any Autobots hanging around because it would be too suspicious and our com links were on the Decepticon frequency. So we practiced our Decepticon impressions on the way. Hound was the one taking us since he could blend using holograms. "It's so weird playing chaperone to Decepticons!" said Hound jokingly along the way. We laughed together, but Taylor and I had weird laughs, cold and tinny. It got silent after that. Once the base was in sight Hound let us out and we walked the rest of the way. Hound sped away and it finally sunk in, _we're on our own._


	17. Infiltration

We walked up to either side of the giant purple door, just like we had found Rumble and Frenzy when we first came. We leaned against the wall and looked around with minimal interest. About 15 minutes later Skywarp came out and said "Ok Megatron wants us all, including you pipsqueaks." Me and Taylor didn't know what to say so we walked in past him looking annoyed and I turned to glare for a second, then turned again and kept walking. That seemed to do it. Once we got to the command room with Skywarp behind us every Decepticon was there. I was freaking out on the inside but I kept a cool, unconcerned face. Megatron gave a lecture about how he had a brilliant plan and how we would soon crush the Autobots. He told us he would explain his 'master plan' to us once he had completed making it 'foolproof' and he sent everyone to their rooms. But of course we didn't know where our rooms were, or if we even had one.

At that moment Soundwave pretty much cleared that up for us because he said "Frenzy, Rumble, return." meaning that he wanted us to turn into cassettes and jump into his chest. We had no idea of what to do so I took the big sister role and jumped uncertainly towards Soundwave and transformed midair. Then when I got close a magnet pulled me into place and I fit neatly into my little slot. _So that's how they do it! A magnet!_ I thought to myself. Taylor followed suit, and we were in a Decepticon, surrounded by Decepticons for the night. Inside Soundwave it was dark, but I could barely make out the little rack we were in. (I don't know how since I had no eyes, being a cassette.) There were 6 slots for Rumble, Frenzy, Lazerbeak, Buzzsaw, Ravage, and Ratbat. It was pretty cramped and he almost seemed hollow inside. Then Soundwave walked to his room and lied down, we could feel every move he made, it was actually pretty weird and awkward. I guess if you're a cassette your whole life you get used to it. (Wheeljack had modified the machine so that when we went to sleep, we would stay Rumble and Frenzy.) Pretty soon Taylor and I somehow managed to fall asleep.

While all this is happening, back at the base, the Autobots needed to figure out what to do with their Decepticon visitors. "We could leave them in the cage and stick them in a supply closet." suggested someone. "We can't neglect them. We want them to not be able to figure out anything, but we want them healthy too. If we just leave them, they could die, and that wouldn't be good for Hailey and Taylor. So we need to find a balance between seclusion and care." explained Optimus.

At this point, Rumble and Frenzy were sitting in a cage with thick metal bars, off in a corner of the lab with a sheet over the cage, pinned in place so it couldn't be pulled off, and the bars were close enough that they couldn't slip through. It was big enough that they could stand and they weren't cramped either, and Cliffjumper was watching them. All these precautions were taken because they didn't want them to try to escape since catching them again might bring them harm, meaning that Taylor and I got hurt. And they also didn't want them snooping around the base.

Back in the command room with Prime were Wheeljack, Ratchet, Jazz, Bumblebee, Hound, Mirage, and Perceptor. While they were trying to figure out what to do, Rumble and Frenzy were having their own conversation, unaware that Cliffjumper was in the room with them.

"We need to get outta here." said Rumble.

"We can't go back to base in these meat bags! We'd be killed on sight! Besides, we don't even know where base is!" countered Frenzy.

"You're right; escape would be futile, and probably impossible. We're defenseless!"

"My point exactly. So if we can't escape, we could possibly figure out what happened."

"Ok, How in Cybertron did we get like this? One minute we're our plain old selves, next we're little _human_ _**girls**_!"

"Hey, lookin' at ya, you seem familiar..."

"No, duh, we've been fightin' together for a century!"

"Not what I meant. I'm talkin' about the body you're currently using. I've seen it before."

"Ok, that's just creepy."

"We haven't exactly been hosts to that many humans, so It's gotta be one in the family Megatron used to seem so intent on capturing. Still can't figure why. Humans, pfft. May as well have the big guys go stompin' around the big cities to lessen the population. That'd be a laugh."

"Seriously, now. Who am I? I can't get that great a look at myself."

"Hey you're that one chick! Yeah, the one that escaped twice! The one with the obnoxious null ray. Ugh, I hate that little pest."

"I am? Hmm, wouldn't Megs be happy to see me? Hey where'd my ray go anyways?"

"I dunno, find it. Megatron'd like it. And we could use it to make our escape."

"Well it's not in the clothes. I checked, gave myself a pat down. Where else would it be?"

"Okay that's enough. Stop invading on privacy. It's very rude on Cybertron and Earth." said Cliffjumper finally. He was pleased at the new insight he had just received and he caught Rumble and Frenzy off guard. He was actually almost laughing at their cluelessness, unseen, listening intently.

It had been decided that they would stay in Optimus' trailer, so it was stripped of everything except for the metal slab bed and a bench. Roller was also taken out. Cliffjumper lifted the cage and set it inside the trailer. Then it was unlocked and Rumble and Frenzy walked out and Rumble said "Where are we now?" "I'm not telling." said Cliffjumper, and he walked out. Roller was left to guard.


	18. Daily Life

The next morning when Soundwave woke up the movement woke me up, and I'm assuming all the other cassettes as well. He got up and said "Rumble, Frenzy, Lazerbeak, Buzzsaw, Ratbat, Ravage, eject." We each popped out in the order he called (top to bottom of rack) and we were sent on our way. So apparently we stayed with him in the night, and were only treated as separate entities during the day. Well, most of the Decepticons treated us that way. Skywarp obviously thought us inferior and made it plainly visible whenever Megatron and Soundwave were out of earshot. He never used our names, it was always "Hey shortie!" or "Pipsqueaks! c'mere!" something like that. I learned to hate him _very_ much in the matter of half a day. Taylor seemed to as well. The rest of the Decepticons pretty much treated us like equals, even though I had to look way up every time somebody said something to me. (I had a horrible cramp in the back of my neck at the end of the day.)

Soundwave treated us almost like kids, sort of. He was the nicest to us. Although Ravage was his favorite by far, he was petting him a lot and things like that. If the Decepticons weren't the ones firing at you, some of them weren't half bad. Over the next 2 days I figured out our friends and enemies. I learned that Soundwave and all 3 Reflectors were good friends to talk to. (The Reflectors were always either all I a line, walking in pace with each other with perfect timing, or off all doing their own thing. It was weird when they were together because they all spoke at the same time too.) I also learned to stay away from Skywarp whenever possible. I stayed away from Megatron most of the time mostly because he scared me, but I also didn't want him getting suspicious about me and Taylor. He also had this attitude to all the other Decepticons like they were inferior; they were his pawns, to be dispensed with at his will.

_ Great leader there. You're tools in his eyes! At least Optimus actually cares. With Megatron, if you get gravely wounded at a battle and can't get out yourself, forget you. You're left for dead. If you fail him, you had better be scared for your life. You guys don't even have a medic! If you're not totally busted, you fix others, and then they fix you. But of course Megatron gets fixed first and he doesn't bother to fix anybody else._ I speculated to myself on the third night, about to go to sleep inside Soundwave again. Then I fell asleep.

Back at the Autobot base, Rumble and Frenzy were still in Optimus' trailer and still didn't know it. 3 times a day some Autobot would come into the trailer and put out a plate of food and drink for them (My mom decided to make our bodies healthier while we weren't using them so she made healthy sandwiches and gave them lots of fruits and vegetables. Even though they would never admit it, Rumble and Frenzy actually loved their human food.) and roller was always on guard. (He had nothing better to do and was used to sitting a trailer all day anyways.) They were actually very good little prisoners and Roller was also monitoring their conversations. Here's one of their more interesting ones.

"Autobots are a lot nicer to their captives than Decepticons huh?" said Rumble casually, sitting on top of the bed eating a banana.

"Lucky for us." replied Frenzy, sitting on the bench eating an apple.

"Hey, since nobody back at base will ever know... what do you think of Skywarp?"

"Excuse me?"

"Skywarp. What do ya think of him?"

"Ugh. Him. He's always picking on us, but if we fight Megatron'll kick all 3 of our afts."

"That's another thing. Megatron. Why in Cybertron do we listen to him? We all know deep down that he couldn't care less about us, if not that he hates us. We need a better leader. We're better fighters than the Autobots! Why do you think we haven't won yet? Poor leadership! He just sends us out and gets super mad when we lose."

"A new leader _would_ be good huh? … Who do you think should lead?"

"**Not** Starscream. He's even worse than Megs."

"I agree. I'd go _nuts_ anyways listening to him anyways. Don't you hate his voice?"

"Oh yeah. It sounds like he whining _all_ the time. And he usually is actually."

"Mmhm. But who should be leader?"

"Soundwave maybe?"

"Nah, he's a good worker and guardian, but I don't think he could lead. What do you think he'd do without Megatron's direction anyway?"

"I dunno. Explode?"

They both laughed and the conversation was over.


	19. The Reveal

It had been almost a week since our spying mission had begun. Apparently it took Megatron a while to 'foolproof' his plans, either that or he liked to make announcements super early. Taylor and I had actually gotten pretty close to Reflector and Soundwave. We could fall asleep inside Soundwave comfortably now and on the days he decided not to eject us, we were still comfortable. There are 3 desks in Soundwave's room, 1 big one (Soundwave's of course.) on the north wall and 2 littler ones (for Rumble and Frenzy since the other cassettes were animals.) on the west wall. One time when Taylor and I were in the room working on our computers, Soundwave walked in. Taylor and I both had headphones with really really long cords (like 20 feet long!) on our desks. Soundwave picked them up, plugged the cords into his shoulder, and handed them to us, he also plugged in a third giant pair. We put them on and he started to play rock and roll music, then he sat down and did his work. The way he did it suggested that he did it all the time, and I thought it was very interesting and sweet. Sometimes I almost forgot that everyone in the base wanted me dead, and I felt I belonged. When I got home I would probably forget to answer to Hailey as opposed to Rumble. It was pretty normal for me now and I barely had to think about keeping up my act. Not at all actually unless somebody made a joke about Autobot or human deaths, or any deaths actually.

_Megs had better hurry up with his plan. Our time is almost up!_ I thought to myself early that morning. We were supposed to stay for a week at the base. If something went wrong, we had to run and break the window of the nearest house and pretend to be cassettes for a while. Then sprint back to the Autobot's ship (called the Ark) as fast as possible to switch back and let the real Rumble and Frenzy get knocked around back at the Decepticon ship (called the Annihilation). When we were put on guard duty (It would be Wednesday and we had Wednesday from 2:00pm to 4:30pm. Very boring.) we would go to a pre-designated house. We would only be there a few minutes but at least then we were less likely to be followed (hopefully). Somebody would come get us (poor person if they were actually home at that point) and we'd make the switch back at the Ark. Ratchet and Wheeljack would modify Rumble and Frenzy's memory of course so they didn't remember a thing. This was going to happen tomorrow.

We wanted to return with some actual information. So far we had a bunch of little personal things. I had learned how to turn my arm into pile drivers at this point and I am so happy I learned to record! I had so much to play through Blaster when I got back! But it might be bad if Soundwave wanted me to play something because I didn't know any of Rumble's old files so I couldn't play them. And I had to be positive to not record anything when I went to the ark and delete all the stuff I recorded.

That night Megatron called another meeting. He had finally finished of his plan. "We will attack the nearby solar power plant so we can start to get the Annihilation up and running again and take over the Autobot-free Cybertron. Then we can start taking over other planets while the Autobots are stranded on Earth." announced Megatron. Everyone was smiling and nodding, and Taylor and I just smiled awkwardly. (Try smiling when you know evil 2 story robots are going to attack defenseless humans!) He gave a bunch of details which I memorized at that point but were so monotonous and evil that I can't, nor do I wish to, remember anymore. _Great! Now we have all the information we came for! With a day to spare, and I got it all on tape!_ I thought so myself excitedly. That night I went to bed feeling accomplished.


	20. The Return

It was 2:00pm on Wednesday. We waited for about half an hour at the door, then ran as fast and quietly as possible. We went away from the Annihilation and toward the little neighborhood a mile away. The Annihilation was crashed into a mountain in a barren dust filled area. Half of the ship was buried and the surrounding area was uninhabited for a quarter mile radius because it was a small desert. Once we hit street if we heard a car or person coming we had to turn into cassettes and lie on the side of the road. We finally reached the neighborhood in an hour due to the fact that we were walking, and we had to transform a bunch. (luckily no one noticed the cassettes on the side of the road.) It was a really hot day, so anyone that passed was in a car. Thank goodness we were robots, if we were human, we would've been dying!

We then ran to the pre-designated house and looked for an opening. We eventually went into the house as cassettes through the mail slot. Then, seeing nobody in sight, transformed again and walked into the kitchen and then turned into cassettes again and sat on the counter (so we wouldn't be stepped on.) by the window and waited. About 2 minutes later a man who looked about 30 walked in. When he noticed Taylor and I on the counter he looked at us, confused. Then he said "I don't have cassettes anymore do I? ...Do I still have my old cassette player?..." and He picked up Taylor and I and slipped us into his pocket which was surprisingly roomy. For a few minutes we heard feet on a hardwood floor, shuffling, and rattling. Then suddenly an "Aha!" He found his player. Then I started to worry because all I had was dialogue recorded and he couldn't hear Megatron and Soundwave talking! Then I remembered that I had recorded one of the songs Soundwave had played for us. Taylor never figured out how to record so she'd only have whatever Frenzy recorded. I nudged myself on top of her so that he would be sure to grab me. When he had finished hooking up his old player he reached into the pocket and I practically jumped into his palm. He lifted me out and stuck me in the player. I thought about that song as hard as I could, hoping that that was the right way to play something. Sure enough when he hit play I heard rock and roll. I heard him yell "Hey Charlene! You gotta come see this!" 30 seconds later I heard a female voice "What is it Bill?" "I found some cassettes on the kitchen counter and so I dug up my old player! I assumed you put them there." said Bill. "No... I haven't used cassettes since the 80s!" replied Charlene.

At that point the song was about to end. _Uh-oh... I have to think of a different song! If I play the same song a second time, he'll play Taylor! I'll have to try and play something I didn't record... I know all the words to Fireflies... I'll try that. I thought to myself._ So when the next song ended, I imagined myself playing through fireflies. It didn't work so well. I had the words down and the basic tunes, but it sounded completely wrong. "What's that? We go from rock and roll to this?" They thought it was weird but apparently they weren't familiar with Owl City, so they didn't really question it. He ejected me and stuck me in his pocket. He grabbed Taylor. The as he was putting her in the player there was a honk from outside. Taylor was halfway in the player. He walked to the kitchen window, Taylor still in hand, and said "Now that's weird. I don't think any of our neighbors have a white sports car with a number 4 on the hood... Did somebody get a new car?" _Oh! It's got to be Jazz coming to pick us up! _I thought frantically. Well, I felt bad for this man and woman but I jumped out of Bill's pocket and transformed. Taylor did the same and we ran out with Bill and Charlene freaking out behind us, sprinted out to the car and shut the door with no one but Bill and Charlene seeing.

"So how was your stay in the Annihilation?" asked Jazz casually, speeding away from the poor couple. Blaster was in the driver's seat as a Boom box and Taylor and I were in the back seats. "If the Decepticons aren't trying to kill you, some of them aren't half bad." I replied. "I'm utterly shocked. You make any friends then?" asked Blaster. "Mmhm. Soundwave and the 3 reflectors. Skywarp hates us. And Megatron hates everyone but Soundwave." I stated. "Interesting." said Jazz. "Soundwave even let us use him like an iPod... sorta. While we were all working at our desks in his room He plugged in 3 pairs of headphones and we all listened to rock and roll. I actually recorded one of his songs. Wanna listen?" I asked looking at Blaster. "Sure!" He said enthusiastically. I had the 2 music lovers so I figured they'd say yes. I Transformed and landed on Taylor's lap. She got the message and grabbed Blaster's handle from behind the seat and picked him up with both hands. She set him where I had been sitting a second ago and picked me up, put me into the correct slot and hit play. So we Listened to rock and roll on the way to the Ark.


	21. Spilling the Beans

Once back at the base I ejected from Blaster, and we walked in. Taylor and I got a lot of warm welcomes and congratulations for lasting a week. Once everyone had finished saying hi it was time to start dishing. Everyone went into the galley and sat down. There were 3 stools up front. Prime and Taylor sat on the outside stools and Blaster transformed and landed on the middle one. I asked "Do you want me to play the personal stuff I got too?" "Anything that you think should be shared." replied Optimus. He held his Hand out and I transformed and landed in it. He then inserted me into blaster's cassette slot again and I started playing all of the interesting conversations I had. That took about 20 minutes and there was a lot of laughing or disgusted faces at the things they were saying. Then everyone listened with absolute silence when I played the clip of Megatron announcing his plan. Then the Autobots started to plan, but Wheeljack, Ratchet, Taylor, and I left to switch back.

Rumble and Frenzy were not so happy to see us again and started glaring at us when we walked into the trailer. We picked them up and walked them into the lab blindfolded. They didn't struggle since we had them at gunpoint, but they probably wouldn't have without the guns anyway. We switched and while Ratchet and Wheeljack were altering Rumble and Frenzy's memory (With an occasional shot of my null ray of course) I had to get used to being human again. I had to remember to breathe and there was no clank with every step.

Meanwhile back at the Annihilation Soundwave went outside the base to do who knows what and saw we were gone. He ran into the command room which was empty except for Starscream and Megatron. "Rumble and Frenzy are not at their posts." Soundwave said in his emotionless computer voice. "What?" he punched some keys on their giant computer and they saw 2 blinking dots miles away from the cluster of about 20. Megatron unfortunately had tracers on all his minions, which we never knew about. They looked back at the logs and found that Rumble and Frenzy's dots had been to that same point twice. He pieced together 2 theories. Either Rumble and Frenzy were spies or the Autobots had something to do with it. The second idea would explain why there had been no Autobot activity and why they had seemed a bit off. He told the other 2 to say nothing of it and they would continue with the attack tomorrow and see what happened, to look for something to tip them off. And he was pretty sure he had just learned the coordinates to Autobot HQ. Unfortunately, he was right.


	22. The Solar Power Plant

The next morning We all drove over to the solar power plant. Karma and Jag were with us too. We'd need all the help we could get. Me and Taylor were stuck being humans because of the last battle. Our bodies were out of commission for good unfortunately. We went along anyway for crowd control in case there were any workers. They all just sat there as cars. We watched the workers go in and got some pretty weird looks, but no one wanted to bother with making a fuss about it. After all they were just innocent cars right? At about 7:00am we heard plane noises overhead. Me and Taylor stepped out of the car and everyone looked up, waiting to see the first glimpse of Decepticons and transform. A few seconds later we saw a group of 20 colorful jets. The workers had heard too, and almost all of them had filed outside to look. A cockpit in a purple and Black jet opened up and a gun and tape deck fell out. Then all the transformers transformed in the same second. (I wish I could have gotten the workers reactions on tape!) The battle ensued.

Taylor and I ran to the workers and started telling everyone to get inside. They just stared at us and then back to the 2 story robots with a "Why should we?" look on half of the faces and just utter shock on the rest. A stray bullet landed a few feet from the fringe of the group and that seemed to convince them to move. We all ran into the nearest building and crammed in. There were about 30 people and we crowded around the windows to watch. The Autobots ran towards the base and used the front buildings and walls for cover. _Oh I don't think insurance will cover this... _I thought to myself. I actually started to worry right then because, what were we going to do about all these people? They all knew now. It would be really bad if this got out. Most would think these people were trying to start a conspiracy or they were nuts but if it's 30 people all saying the same thing... and I noticed that someone was making a video on their phone. "Whoa! Whoa! No videos!" "You're how old?" said the man I had noticed first. I unclipped my necklace pointed at the nearest desk and fired my blaster at it. It now had a 3 inch hole. "No videos. If I'm not good enough for you I'll get one of my 2 story friends to convince you." There was a lot of muttering and everyone deleted what they had. I actually went around asking for phones. I had nothing better to do crammed in the building anyway. I can imagine that there was at least one person who didn't hand over their phone but one person on YouTube would be considered fake.

We were crammed into the building for half an hour. Eventually The Decepticons flew away. The Autobots outnumbered them anyway and they had better cover. When they were gone, we walked down. There was bullet singes everywhere. Most of the buildings were still in tact but the stuff in front was covered in scorch marks and one building had half a roof and 3 walls (and a small pile of rubble where the 4th wall used to stand. All in all the damage could have been worse. All the place needed to do was repaint and fix 1 building and the fence was trashed. In the end we decided that one of the machines blew up and took down the wall and the burnt pieces made the scorch marks. And the front section of fence was stolen. (Wheeljack took it to melt down into scrap metal for his projects. It was too scorched up for the story to be believable.) Thank god for insurance. I went on YouTube that night and sure enough, there was a video of the transformers in action. Everyone was leaving comments suggesting that it was fake.

Back at the Annihilation Megatron spoke to Soundwave and Starscream in private. "The Autobots did something to Rumble and Frenzy. They knew we were coming and the coordinates they were at yesterday was the Autobots' ship. Soundwave, go repair Rumble and Frenzy. Make sure everything is in order and don't make a big deal about it. Bring your findings to me." So Soundwave went and Fixed Rumble and Frenzy. Even though he combed through every one of their circuits he found nothing of course and when he told Megs he said "They cover their tracks well. But not well enough!"


	23. Backup Plan

Wheeljack's mind transfer machine definitely was an important discovery. We now knew that you could go from robot to human, but not robot to robot. (We tried that and all that happened was that Cliffjumper and Powerglide had massive headaches that day.) We had "Movie night" every night before I went home. But we actually shouldn't call it that because usually I just hooked up to YouTube and play some G1 episodes which everyone loved. I usually played 3 or 4 because that was the length of a movie. We had finished the series a few days earlier and were now watching Transformers: Animated from Cartoon Network. But the last few episodes of G1 had given and idea to Wheeljack about what to do with me and Taylor since Cascade and Jolt were out of action for a bit. Because Wheeljack being Wheeljack, he had to try something new.

"Let's make them headmasters!" Wheeljack suggested to Prime that night. "I'm not so sure putting them in our heads is such a good idea..." said Optimus, putting the palm of his hand to the side of his head. He didn't like the idea of hollow heads, and honestly, I don't think anyone would. But once Wheeljack had explained the process of how it would be done Optimus still wasn't convinced. "What's wrong with Cascade and Jolt?" "Think about it. What was the one thing you hated about their alternate bodies? They weren't protected. You didn't want them on the front lines. Where would a safer place be? They can't be shot or kidnapped!" After a lot more reasoning Prime saw the logic and agreed. Now it was time to ask my parents again. When Wheeljack started to explain, my parents' eyes were the size of saucers. But they eventually agreed too. Then he asked Taylor and I. We agreed right away but in the back of my head I'm thinking _Oh man this is gonna be sooooo awkward..._

That morning we had to pick who we were going to be headmasters with. No one wanted to be part of this experiment for obvious reasons. In the end I was with Prime and Taylor was with Jazz. They eventually walked into the lab reluctantly and came out a few hours later. "Ok guys I hope you all like each other because your going to get very close. Now, girls please step into your cars." Taylor, Optimus, Jazz, and I all exchanged awkward looks and Prime and Jazz transformed. We stepped in and looked up to Wheeljack for instruction. "Now, Transform again." They did as he said and Taylor and I got flipped a bit but we ended up still in the seats. I looked out the windshield and saw that I was way off the ground. "You know how weird this feels?" Jazz said looking through his own windshield. Optimus was also looking through his windshield. I didn't know who was more uncomfortable, me or him. It was like being in Soundwave again, but different and for some reason, way more awkward.

I noticed a little door looking thing in the back of Optimus' cab and I didn't know whether or not to open it. Taylor, Jazz, Optimus, and Wheeljack were talking about something but I wasn't listening. Curiosity got the best of me. I leaned over and opened the door. Optimus felt something change but he trusted me enough not to worry about it. I didn't know that so I froze when he shifted, thinking he was going to get mad. I waited for a second and nothing happened so I took my eyes away from the windshield and looked at the now open door. I saw a big, blue, glittery ball. There was also wires and circuitry around it. It was Optimus' spark chamber. I stared in awe. This was the equivalent to Optimus' heart. I shut the door and sat there, shocked Optimus' hadn't reacted at all except to shift his weight. It showed that he trusted me enough to not feel the need to check up on me even though I had easy access to his spark. We were going to need this trust in the field. We needed to work as one. As I finished my thought Wheeljack broke off the old conversation and got back to the matter at hand.

"Ok girls, see the circle above your heads? Push up on it and climb up." said Wheeljack finding it hard to stay serious when he saw all of out uncomfortable faces. I opened the door. I felt Optimus flinch slightly as I heard it clang loudly. Oops. I used the back of the seats as a step and climbed up trough the hole. "You spoke too soon. It just got much weirder." said Optimus to Jazz.

I stood up and looked around. It was all a light gray and there was one huge screen spanning one whole side and some arm length gloves and super tall boots. They were made of metal and were open on a hinge. "Ok girls, you probably can't hear me well so I'm using the com. Put on the gloves and boots, all you do is put your limbs into place and it will close automatically." I stepped up and put my arms into the glove and boots, they snapped shut and fit perfectly. "Now, hit the green button on the control panel to turn on the screen. Then hit the blue button on the control panel and try moving." I pressed the green button and the screen instantly lit up showing me the command room from Optimus' point of view. I saw 180 degrees and I saw the yellow reverse button. I hit that and I saw 180 degrees behind Optimus. I hit it again and It was forward again. Then I hit the sky blue button and and I lifted my arm to inspect my gloved hand. I happened to notice movement on the screen and saw Optimus' hand. I wiggled my fingers and he wiggled his. "That was strangely involuntary. Now I spoke too soon. This is even weirder." said Optimus. "Ok Hailey wiggle your fingers again and Optimus try to stop them." said Wheeljack. I wiggled my fingers again and Optimus said "I can't." I was in complete control. "Ok Hailey, you'll notice that where you're standing is blue, try walking." said Wheeljack. I took a step and so did Optimus. He moved toward Jazz, I went nowhere. "Its a 360 degree treadmill. You'll never run out of room." explained Wheeljack as if he could see my puzzled expression. I started to walk around the room, and I kind of got the hang of it even though I was toddling around at the start. (Anyone who had just walked in at that point would have thought Optimus was a 2 year old trying to walk.)

Taylor and I were walking around pretty normally after about 10 minutes. "Ok, that's enough walking. Try the voices. Hit the blue button again. Then the purple button on the control panel and speak." I hit the blue button and tried to take a step. The treadmill was now stationary. It only moved when I was controlling Optimus. I hit the purple button and said "What do you want me to say?" and I heard "What do you want me to say?" at the same time. "Cool!" we both said. Wheeljack of course only heard Optimus. "Oh, I've always wanted to say this! Autobots! Transform and roll out! That was so cool!" I said enthusiastically. "What's so cool about it? You could have said it anytime you wanted." said Optimus. "Hey you can still talk too! And it's just way better in your voice." "That figures. I'm so not surprised." said Jazz, who had to have actually been Taylor. "Oh Primus. I feel like a puppet. This is all totally involuntary." said Jazz, with an awkward epression. "I know what you mean." replied Optimus, nodding. "Hey!" I said. I was being jostled by the nodding. "Oops, sorry."

"Ok, that's the basics. We need to give you guys some time to get used to it, but now you know what everything is." said Wheeljack. I hit the purple button again and sat back in the chair behind the 360 degree treadmill. We spent the rest of the day in their heads to hopefully make it less awkward when we got in next time. Sometimes I would jump down into his chest so I could talk to people better. When it was time to get out we opened the hatches again and jumped down. They transformed and we stepped out. That night I had a dream that it was flipped and Optimus was in my head.


	24. Training

Now we knew how to work the headmasters but we needed to get good with them now. Taylor and I crawled through our trapdoors and got in position while Optimus and Jazz went to the battle simulator. Wheeljack had it set on easy but me and Taylor were in control the whole time. It was kind of like having our bodies again but we needed to adjust nonetheless. Eventually he turned up the level a notch and so on and so on until by the end of the day we reached the midpoint. We started again the next day and we went on like that until by the end of the week we were pros. We reached the level where Prime and Jazz usually practiced.

Jazz and Optimus were in control as usual with their mock guns at the ready. Taylor and I had our eyes glued to the screen (We were in separate rooms and Optimus and Jazz had 360 degree treadmills just like us.) I stood on the blue mat and waited. I hit the reverse button because I knew Optimus could handle the front himself. I saw the first hologram show up. (They were faceless gray bodies as usual and they fought as well as they could in a simulation. They had mock guns as well and the computer controlling the simulation would keep track of who hit who so it was really realistic. Until you died. Then you ended up back in the plain white room and there was a big "SIMULATION OVER") It took aim and while Optimus was still waiting to see a target. I hit the blue button and dodged the bullet then hit it again and Optimus whirled around and started firing. The simulation went on and on for about 10 whole minutes and we finished with only being shot twice. That's pretty good for 1 vs. 20. We were almost like one person.

About 4 days later the alarm was sounding and Teletraan was announcing that there were Decepticons airborne, flying toward the Ark a quarter mile out. All the Autobots prepared for battle and rushed out the big orange door of the Ark and the battle ensued. Taylor and I climbed into Optimus and Jazz's heads and they ran out into the battle din.

I Jammed my arms and legs into place in my gloves and boots and turned on the screen. Optimus ran into the middle so I switched to back view. I saw Starscream zooming toward Wheeljack, a few feet away so I switched back to front, took control for a sec, punched Dirge (whom Optimus was currently having a fist fight with) and kicked him out of the way. I took that second when he staggered backwards to spin around and fire at Starscream. I turned around again and gave Optimus control again. He went back to Dirge without a word. This is what we had practiced in the practice room.

The battle went on this way for about 10 minutes with no real spectacle until Jazz got shot. Taylor had missed a beat and Jazz got shot badly in the arm. His left arm hung limp and in the second I stopped to look at him Optimus was shot and his windshield was shattered. The force flung open the trap door so I ran over to shut it. That was a mistake. He was shot from behind again and I fell through the hole.

I fell onto the metal seats in Optimus' cab and from there onto the floor. I picked myself up, wiped off the broken safety glass, glad I was wearing metal gloves. Little did I know that Soundwave happened to notice me since he's the one that shot Optimus. He watched me climb up and was then knocked over by Cliffjumper tackling him. He threw him off, which was easy since Cliffjumper is pretty small compared to him, and ejected Laserbeak. The big bird flew straight to Optimus, dodging his shots and flew straight through the broken windshield. He flew up through the door I had just closed and paused for half an instant in wonder. I unclipped my necklace and fired.

Unfortunately since I was still inside poor Optimus' head, The field generated by the ray effected him too. He fell. I was thrown onto Laserbeak who was thrown to the wall. The 'room' was now sideways. I couldn't walk to the controls. Although, thanks to Laserbeak I was high enough that I could jump and grab the back of my chair. I scrambled onto that and hit the control switch. I righted Optimus (jumbling myself a bit in the process) and tilted his head so Laserbeak fell through the door. He landed in Optimus' cab so I made Optimus grab him out, throw him on the ground, and step on him. I sure didn't want to fix the scraps of circuitry now. Soundwave saw the pancake and got furious. (Who knew, he had compassion after all.)

He aimed and fired, hitting Optimus in the chest again. I was glad I couldn't feel anything. He then ran over and tackled Optimus. We were both on the ground. He sat up and tried to punch Optimus' eye out. I grabbed his fist and held it at bay and kicked him off and he flew a good 30 feet. _Wow. Good thing Optimus is super strong._ I thought as I stood and whirled around expecting another attacker. I found Skywarp taking aim at where the back of my head had been a second ago. I fired and hit him square in the face. When he looked back he had one eye.

I kept fighting for Optimus for a while. It was weird and the whole spectacle a minute ago probably looked pretty abnormal to anyone on the outside of the conflict. He came round and I handed over the reins.

He said over the com (as opposed to aloud) "What did I miss? Why was I out?" I replied "Sorry Optimus. Laserbeak flew in here and I shot him with the null ray. It effected you too. But don't worry. I- oops, _you_ squished him. He's an ugly pancake." He chuckled and went on. The fighting went on and on for what seemed like ages. Once the Decepticreeps finally retreated a half hour later Cliffjumper, Wheeljack, and Hound had to be rushed into med bay. Jazz had one working arm, Optimus' windshield was shattered, and everyone else was at least lightly damaged. I also had a giant bruise on my side. I guess Laserbeak doesn't make a very good cushion.


	25. Matrix High

My seemingly endless summer had finally come to an end. I did the ritualistic back to school shopping and whatnot. I had almost died twice over the summer and what was I scared of? High school.

I was to be a freshman at Matrix High. We were the 'Matrix High Trons' our mascot was a robot. I always laughed at that. _How fitting, considering my summer!_ I always thought every time I saw it. The first 4 weeks went by pretty smoothly (except me getting lost on the first day). Week 5? whole other story. Actually, I blame the whole week when really it was just a hectic Thursday.

In the middle of English I heard crashing and screaming. So did the whole class. The teacher walked out to see why every alarm in the school was going off. The class of course followed. Our eyes were met by a two story robot with a black face, red torso, blue hands and feet, and jet wings. It was Starscream. He was scanning the crowd. Looking for me. _Again? No girl should have to live with this._ I thought angrily as the whole class swarmed with the rest of the school toward the PE fields (the place farthest from Starscream on campus).

I ran against the flow until I was within attack range. He spotted me so I ducked into the nearest classroom with an open door. I barely missed his arm swiping past. He punched the roof and a shower of ceiling fell in the center of the class. I leaned out the door and shot his leg with my null ray which I had unclipped while Starscream punched in the roof. He fell so I ran with the crowd.

Most people were to busy running to notice anything weird going on. I felt bad for the people that screamer had knocked over whilst swiping at me and those who took notice. Most hadn't noticed the bright purple ray flying through the air, or its source. If they did they didn't believe it. Starscream fell on the empty quad. I was one of the last ones out. As I was running I called the Autobots. Once Screamer came around all it took was 10 of the Autobots (including Optimus) to drive in the parking lot and pause for him to fly off. Then they drove away. No one seemed to care about the mystery cars.

It cost $150 To fix the room Screamer had punched in and I didn't hear a peep from the Decepticreeps at school for quite a while. Every once in a great while there would be 'unexplained damage' on the news. My family and I would watch and giggle because we knew the exact cause.


	26. A Very Cybertronian Birthday Part 1

Finally! It was finally my birthday. I invited my closest friends to my yearly sleepover and when the night finally arrived I was so excited! My friends all filed in the door, Bailey, (She had short brown hair with the bangs bleached and dyed pink. She was skinny, and about an inch shorter than me. She was wearing a purple hoodie and skinny jeans) Joanna (She had shoulder length brown hair. She was skinny and short. She wore a green tank top and skinny jeans), Zoe (She had shoulder length blond hair. She was my height. She was average weight. She wore a white fedora, A red MUSE T-shirt and denim shorts.), Tika (She had short black hair. She was shorter than me, skinny, and was indonesian. She wore a dark pink slim fit tee and skinny jeans.), Maddie (She had short blonde hair. She was my height and skinny. She wore a sky blue slim fit tee and bootcut jeans.), Scribble (She had belly-button length blond hair. She was about an inch shorter than me, she was average weight. She wore a black T-shirt and bootcut jeans.), and Kimi. (She was about my height. She had long black hair, was a teensy bit chubby, and was asian. She wore a dark blue T-shirt and skinny jeans.) We of course ordered pizza. We loaded up on candy, chips, and soda and frittered the hours away. At about 2:45 my com link sounded. My friends all looked at me due to the strange beeping. I said it was my phone so I'd go take the call. I ran off into the bathroom. My friends wondered who would call this early then noticed my phone on the table. They didn't know what was going on. They all went up to the bathroom door and heard me. I didn't know this and talked to the Autobots over the com.

"What's up?" "We need help. Ironhide's arm cannon is on the fritz. I need you to climb down the barrel." replied Ratchet. "I'm at my birthday party sleepover right now! Don't I even get a break for my birthday?" "...Ok... well-" "Why not bring them?" Prime cut Ratchet off. "What?" "You heard me. We could send over enough people to transport you all. How many are there?" "8 including me... but what about being all secretive?" "Just like the workers at the solar plant. If they try to tell anyone, everyone will think they're crazy. Besides, if these people are your friends, I'd hope they're trustworthy enough that they won't tell." "Touche. I'll ask my parents." "Ok." I flipped the com and paged my parent's earbuds. They went off in their room, waking up my dad. He grabbed the flashing bud, put it in his ear and groggily said "What?" "It's Hailey. Optimus invited my whole party to go to the base. Can we please?" "Ok, I don't see anything wrong. It's pretty safe at the Ark. In fact, you're probably even safer there." Prime heard our conversation and said "I'll send Cliffjumper over."

I ran out of the bathroom and knocked into my friends. Bailey asked "What was all that?" I was miffed at their nosiness but I was too excited to care. "Road-trip! We're going somewhere- ...special." "How so?" asked Tika. "Let's just say you've never been anywhere like it." They all gave me looks. I ignored it and we walked out front to wait for the red bug. When he pulled up, the doors opened without a word. He wanted it to be a surprise obviously so I said nothing and ushered them into the car. Bailey, Joanna, Maddie, and Kimi got in back. Zoe, Scribble, and I sat in front. "Where are the seat belts?" asked Joanna. "You don't need one." There was awkward silence on the way to the Ark. When we showed up at Octomotro's city hiking trail they were perplexed. I told them to get out and made them cover their eyes. I spun them around to disorient them while Cliffjumper transformed and opened the door. I herded them into the center of the command room and all the Autobots crowded around the newcomers to surprise them.

"Ok, uncover your eyes." I said suppressing fits of laughter. They hesitantly uncovered their eyes and gaped. When Zoe finally collected her wits (after half a minute of gaping) she said "Transformers. Shocking. I never thought they were real, so I'm astounded about that. What I'm not surprised about is that you're hanging out with them. It's so Hailey of you." All the humans smiled because, it's so true! Ratchet walked up and said "Remember the reason you're here." "Oh yeah." Ratchet set his hands down, palms up. My friends didn't know what to make of it. "Come on lead feet!" I said shoving my friends toward him. They stepped up hesitantly. He slowly picked his hands off the floor and my friends staggered. _I was like that once._ I thought with a smirk, staying completely upright.

We headed off to the med bay. Once there Ratchet set us on a tabletop. My friends watched me as I walked over to the huge cupboard nearby and grabbed the oversized handle. I leaned all my weight back and it opened. I walked around the door and took out the oversized T-shirt I used for helping Ratchet or Wheeljack and slipped it over my head. Ratchet picked me up by the back if it (It was stretched from him and Wheeljack doing that more than once) and carried my over to the berth where Ironhide sat. His arm was stuck in cannon mode and he was looking at it grimacing. It obviously hurt.

"He's got a shard of metal stuck in it. I can't get to it. Be a dear and get it out for us." he smiled as my friends' eyes bulged for a moment when I shoved my head into the barrel of the gun without hesitation. I crawled in until only my hips down showed. I kicked my legs while I reached and yanked at the metal shard. It was embedded pretty well in the back wall of the gun. I felt Ironhide flinching every time I yanked. I felt bad, but it was going to hurt a lot more to leave it. I finally wrenched it free. A little oil was on the shard and it was all over my arms from yanking. I felt Ironhide finally relax as the pain was gone and I squirmed back out. He retracted the cannon and bent his fingers. "Thanks a lot. I owe ya one." "No, I was happy to help. You owe me nothing."

I turned to my friends. They stared so I looked at myself. I was still holding the shard, and my arms were covered in oil. "Hm, not too pretty huh?" I said. I set down the shard. Ratchet picked me up again and set me by a huge bucket of water and a little soap bar was next to it. This was as close to a sink as I could get in the Ark. As I was cleaning off the oil, Ratchet said "She helps me with little procedures like that a lot. If we were back on Cybertron, I would've had to dismantle Ironhide's arm to get to that shard." I walked back over smiling. I took off the shirt and gave it to Ratchet who put it on it's hook. I turned to my friends, wondering what to do next.


	27. A Very Cybertronian Birthday Part 2

"Ok guys, here's the deal. We can either stay here, or go back to my house." there was chorus of "Stay here!" I smiled. I knew they'd want to stay. They were still curious, they wouldn't leave until they knew more.

Ratchet had turned back to Ironhide telling him the typical "If it hurts more come back." etc. So instead of being carried, we all climbed down the little ladder to the floor (They had been installed on every table or counter so that if I was left, I wouldn't be stranded.) We walked to my "bedroom". It was an old broom closet that was in the hallway to everyone's quarters. They had cleaned it out (I helped) and put in a bed and desk. It also had a little outlet so I could bring my laptop if I wanted. It also had a little lamp (made by Wheeljack) and a few other essentials. It was cramped for an Autobot, but about the right size for a human (a little tall but that's not too bad). I sat on my bed next to Zoe and Maddie. Tika, Joanna, Kimi, Scribble, and Bailey filled the couch and 2 seats. "Now what?" Scribble asked. "What can we do?" asked Bailey. "I wanna see the robots again!" piped up Joanna. "We can go meet them a little better. How about that?" I suggested. "Yeah!" came the chorus again. _Knew it. _I thought as I walked out of my room towards command.

My friends flinched as the giant feet came down all around us in the command. It was always busy here. There were people at monitors, people going out to patrol and coming back, and people on the way to the rec room. "Don't worry, they won't squash you!" They still seemed uncertain so while they stayed against the wall I walked through the middle of the room. It was like a crowded hallway. I flowed around them and they flowed around me. Eventually my friends wandered to meet me. (They had plenty of time to, considering that the hallways were Autobot sized. It took a while to get anywhere.)

When we finally sauntered into the rec room, there was plenty of people to meet. Over at a table in the corner Bee, Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, and Powerglide were sitting. Bee happened to notice us and said "Hey! C'mon over, let's chat!" I nodded and we made our way to the table. We scrambled onto the ladder and up onto the table.

My friends seemed intimidated. I smirked and casually said "Hey guys, what's up?" "Nothing much. We were all just talking about what we saw on patrol." said Bee. "Oh really? Anything interesting?" "Not to you." "How so?" "It's stuff we saw humans do." "Oh. So like walking the dog and such?" "Pretty much. I still don't see the point in that." I sighed at their cluessness. "Ok that's boring. New subject!" "Like what?" said Sideswipe. "My friends and I wanna get to know you better. Or well, they do. I pretty much know you guys."

I smiled and turned to my friends. They were just standing in a cluster, looking up at the four faces surrounding us. "What do they want to know?" asked Sunstreaker, leaning forward and looking at me. He was interested that he could be the subject of conversation. Of course. "Ask them." I said jerking my thumb in my friends' direction. They had obviously hoped that I wouldn't throw them in the spotlight, judging by the looks on their faces. "Oh c'mon guys. They won't bite! This one here couldn't if he wanted to!" I pointed at mouth-less Powerglide.

They still didn't seem to trust them, so I decided I'd interact and hoped that when they saw how I was ok with them, they'd manage to at least talk to them. I walked to the edge of the table in front of the nearest bot. It was Powerglide. I just looked up at him and he put out his hand. I could feel all eyes on me. Some were relaxed gazes (the twins and Bee) and others were tense and curious (my friends). I stepped on and he lifted me to his shoulder. I quickly stepped onto it and he put down his hand. I couldn't see my friends around the wing on his shoulder, so I put my fingers into a little "seam" as I call it. (I have no idea what it actually was) But I put my fingers in the space for security and leaned out far enough to see my friends below. My weight was so miniscule compared to his that I wasn't hurting Powerglide at all. He kept an optic on me though, lest I should fall.

"Ok, so what did you wanna ask?" I asked from my perch. They moved forward, I guess scared I would fall from leaning out so far. I sat down and dangled my feet since they were now in easy view. Powerglide let his gaze finally wander to my friends, sure that I wouldn't fall. I'd been in this sort of position often enough. "Maybe we should know your names...?" said Maddie unconfidently. "Oh, how rude of us! I'm Bumblebee." "I'm Sunstreaker!" "I'm Sideswipe." "I'm Powerglide." each said in turn, raising their hands to identify themselves. "Nice to meet you. I'm Maddie." "...I'm Bailey." "I'm Joanna." "I'm Kimi" "I'm Zoe." "And I'm Fransiska. But just call me Tika." "And I'm Sarah. But please, call me Scribble." My friends each said in turn, raising their hands as well.

"Ok, with that out of the way, why don't you all share a little about yourself. Who wants to go first?" I asked, looking around at my friends, robotic and humanoid. For the next few minutes everyone got acquainted with one another. Once that was done I said "Now what?" "Well, these guys are transformers right? We haven't seen any transforming." suggested Zoe. My friends finally didn't act like the Autobots were going to squash them if they said one wrong thing.

"Ok, have it your way!" retorted Sunstreaker. He stood up, then faster than anyone could react, he grabbed Zoe and threw her in the air. He paused for an instant, then transformed. Once he was done he said "You wanted transformation, you got it!" He opened his door and out stumbled a shaken Zoe. He had caught her in his cab mid-transformation.

"THAT WAS AWESOME!" said Zoe finally. All of us burst into laughter, including Zoe. Once done he transformed into a robot once more. "How'd you do that?" I asked Sunstreaker in awe as he picked up Zoe and put her back on the table, saving her the climb up the ladder. "Not too hard. I just did this!" He said and without missing a beat he snatched me off Powerglide's shoulder and redid his stunt. While in the air I just saw him below me, then when he leaned back to transform, his chest opened for a moment and I saw the metal benches. I landed on them and the roof was over again. I stepped outside, not quite as surprised as Zoe since I wasn't the first, but nonetheless exhilarated.

"Ok, now that's fun! It felt like I was flying!" I said enthusiastically. "I wish we could go flying. But that's Decepticons huh? They're the planes." asked Kimi. "Mostly. But not all. Powerglide here's a plane!" Powerglide smiled proudly. At least, he would've been, if he had a mouth. "Can we fly?" asked Tika, excited. "Sure! Let's go out front."

Each girl got on a shoulder. Once out front, the girls were transferred to hands and Powerglide transformed. Then we were set in the cockpit. We all sat on the metal benches (which were warm. I still don't understand why Autobots are so warm.) He took off and flew up into the clouds. He started doing corkscrews and nose dives and loop-the-loops to our delight. We squealed with pleasure almost constantly. When we finally touched back down we were unloaded once more. Once back inside, Bee was tired so he retired to his quarters, and Powerglide was tired from flight so he went to the galley, had an energon cube, then went to his quarters as well. This left us with Sunstreaker and Sideswipe.


	28. A Very Cybertronian Birthday Part 3

We decided to go to The Lambo twin's quarters. (They shared a room since they're brothers) Once there we decided to play truth or dare. This was a totally new game to the twins so it was pretty fun. We had made them do some pretty crazy things. As an example, we made Sideswipe give Sunstreaker a piggyback ride around the Ark. It was quite the spectacle.

I had come up with the dare so they gave me a pretty good one in return. "I dare you too... eat energon!" said Sunstreaker. "I've got no idea what that'll do to me!" "Exactly." "What if it's something bad?" "What do you think Ratchet is for?" "Won't he want an explanation?" "Soon as he sees us, he'll get the picture." "Touche." I was pretty curious anyways so I took the dare. Sunstreaker quickly went off to the rec room and brought back a whole cube. He broke off a corner and handed it to me, setting the rest of the cube on a table.

All eyes were on me as I rubbed my thumb on the smooth, slightly glowing purple piece. "What _is_ that?" piped up Kimi. "Energon. Our basic fuel." replied Sideswipe. He said it as if it was basic information, no big deal.

Unable to stall any more, I put the energon into my mouth. It had barely any taste. What little taste it did have, it was bitter. As an Autobot it had been sweet. But It was tingly on my tongue. It didn't melt like it did when I was a robot either. I chewed it. It was crunchy.

After I swallowed I felt tingly all over. My hair stood up on end and I had goose-bumps all over. The twins had a look that clearly read "uh oh..." Tika reached out to touch me with a worried expression. "Ow!" she exclaimed as she quickly pulled back her hand. "What?" It was the first thing I said since eating the energon. Everyone looked relieved. "You shocked me!" I was curious at this development so I went and touched Sideswipe's leg. He flinched ever so slightly. "That felt weird." "Weird how?" "I dunno. Not painful, just weird." I was really hyper right now. I started to fidget. I decided to run around the room. One lap around and the feeling was gone. I was normal. "You ok?" asked Sunstreaker. "Mmhm. That felt really weird. Kinda tickled." So that was my experience with energon.

The twins felt bad so they took me to Ratchet and suffered his wrath. Nothing was wrong with me though. I was utterly normal. Ratchet thought the twins were crazy when they told him my symptoms. I ate more energon to prove it. More tests led Ratchet to wonder what would happen to me with bigger doses. But of course he didn't share his curiosity with me, or anyone else for that matter. He shoved it to the back of his mind and came out of his own thoughts. He said to not do it again and sent me off. After about another hour we crashed. My human friends and I stumbled into my room and we all slept heavily.


	29. A Very Cybertronian Birthday Part 4

Ratchet walked into my room. We had blankets from med bay. He had come in to check on us last night since he was up anyway. We had woken him up last night to give me a few scans and he'd stayed up to clean and study the scans. He saw us scattered on the floor, bed, and couch so he covered us up.

He looked at our sleeping figures for a moment, unawakened by the swoosh of the sliding door. After a minute he said "Wakey wakey sleepy heads! You've been in stasis long enough." We groaned and finally stirred. He left us to wake The Lambo twins. Once there he threw an energon cube at each and said "Get up ya lazy bums!" They grumbled, just as tired as we were and got up. It was 10 o'clock.

Once all of us humans had brushed our hair (I kept a brush at the Ark) we walked into the rec room. We went to an empty table and sat there. "This was the most interesting sleepover of my life. For sure." said Zoe. All the others agreed. We talked about how they should put a little human corner in the rec room. In the end of the conversation we decided it should have bean bags, a water cooler, and a little rug. We also talked about them coming over again. I said I was sure it was fine. Just to be sure I commed Prime and he said it was. (They did come over again. Not all at the same time but I'd occasionally drag them to the Ark when they were at my house.)

Bumblebee took us back to my house and all my friends were picked up by their parents. I giggled when I heard Kimi's mom ask outside, "So, What did you girls do?" She replied "Oh, not much."


	30. The Taylor Chronicles Part 1

I was at school. We were at lunch chatting about the "strange monster" a few weeks before. For some reason we had picked up the long forgotten subject. The friends that had been at my sleepover pieced it together but those who hadn't been to the Ark yet (I was working on it. Eventually all my closest friends would know. And in case you're wondering, no. My friends didn't tell a soul about my giant alien robot/car friends.) were in the dark. I think it may be best to tell this part of the story from the victim's point of view: My little sister.

Taylor

I was at recess, playing. I fell on the hard blacktop. I scraped my hands. _Not too bad_ I thought. I went to the bathroom to wash my hands. Then I'd go to the office for ice. I heard screaming. I peeked out of the empty bathroom. There was Decepticons!_ Oh no oh no oh no!... _There was a cobalt blue one, a red white and blue one, a black and purple one, and a blue and black one. _Oh I should know these names! Hailey's said them enough times in her rants... Oh yeah! Soundwave, Starscream, Skywarp and Thundercracker. Hailey said she saw them at school too. I guess they decided not to send just one this time. Smart robots. Smart Megatron. _

While I was figuring all this out Soundwave spotted me. "Alert: Organic detected." _Me?_ I ran out of the bathroom hoping to hide. _Where to go? The playground!_ I ran over and hid in one of the crawling tubes. It used to work for a while in hide-and-seek... They came down. They walked around knowing I'd run down the hill. "Where is the little meatbag anyway?" Someone said. Skywarp? "Check in that thing." Starscream. Anyone could recognize the wannabe leader's whiney, screechy voice. Huge footsteps approached. Thump thump thump over the wood-chips littering the playground. _Uh Oh._

They soon found me. Starscream saw me in the tube and said "Oh hello there, little one." in a sickeningly sweet voice. His black face and red eye was replaced by a long blue finger, stretching toward me. I panicked. I scrambled out the other side of the tube and tried to make a break for it. I ran right into Thundercracker's hand. "Got it." _It? Excuse me?_ I of course didn't say that out of pure fear, but I was still insulted.

I was swapped to Skywarp's hand while Thundercracker transformed. I was set inside. Soundwave transformed and landed as a tape deck on the seat behind me. As if being inside Thundercracker's cockpit wasn't bad enough. Now I had to fear Soundwave and his tape decks too. I wondered if it would be as scary to see Frenzy or Rumble. After all, Hailey and I had been them for 2 whole weeks. Thundercracker took off. I knew I was in trouble. At this point I realized I was missing something. My ear bud communicator. Now how was anyone supposed to know I was gone?


	31. The Taylor Chronicles Part 2

Even in the cockpit I could hear the loud noise that gave Thundercracker his name. I watched through the window as Thundercracker flew at breakneck speed. I was shaking because I didn't know what was ahead. All I knew was that I wasn't going to like it.

"Organic not as afraid as expected." Soundwave suddenly chimed in. He scared me. I forgot he was even there. I was extremely afraid, but rather than dwell on it I had decided that I could at least enjoy flying. Of course, It was a lot more fun with Powerglide because I didn't have to fear for my life.

I decided not to pass that on and not give him satisfaction so I simply said "Oh? What did you expect then?" I tried to sound casual. "No real expectations but fear. Which you aren't showing much of." "I'm enjoying the ride. And the scenery. The Autobots will just save me anyway." "Enjoying the ride huh? Let's see if ya like this!" cut in Thundrecracker. Apparently Thunder didn't like me being happy so he started to shake around and spin. "Wheee!" I squealed. This is the kind of stunt flying I always enjoyed with Powerglide.

Soundwave didn't like the ride apparently because he ejected Rumble. Rumble immediately snatched the tape deck out of the air. That stopped it from clanging around the cockpit madly.

Thunder quickly stopped though either because I was enjoying it or because of Starscream. "And _what_ exactly are you doing?" "Umm, Trying to rattle the prisoner." he said straightening out. "Well all you rattled was Soundwave!" said Rumble indignantly.

I turned back to look at him. I immediately thought of Hailey. "Oh, am I some sort of spectacle?" he said noticing my gaze. "Oh. Umm. No." I quickly blurted turning forward. "Then why were you staring? Knowing who you are, It's not like you've never seen a transformer." I turned again. His gaze at me didn't seem all that hostile, mostly curious. But I couldn't tell all that well because of his visor. I did have practice with Jazz though. I still had to think of something. I couldn't tell him the real reason. "Oh, It's just that usually you guys are way bigger than us. But you're about my size." "Makin' fun of my size huh? Just like everyone else!" "No no! I think it's cool. Makes you unique." "Well. Never thought of it that way." He seemed embarrassed by being soft though so he promptly returned to Soundwave. "Hey, we're here." Thundercracker announced.


	32. The Taylor Chronicles Part 3

The cockpit door opened. Soundwave jumped out and transformed. Then he picked me up in a gorilla grip and walked through the doors. I heard Thundercracker transform and heavy footfalls behind us. The giant doors opened with a slight swish. I didn't bother struggling. Would do little to no good. We walked through seemingly endless hallways and I was dreadfully lost by the time we reached the command room. Megatron was standing at the giant super computer.

Soundwave took me to Megatron and once next to him Megatron turned. Soundwave turned his hand and released his grasp so I ended up lying on his upturned palm. "Mission: Successful." Megatron grabbed me out of Soundwave's hand between two of his giant metallic digits in such a way that I was draped over his thumb with his index finger on my back. It was uncomfortable and degrading, as it was obviously intended. Either that or he really just didn't know how to hold me. Probably the first option.

"Now what?" asked Starscream, arms crossed. He obviously didn't think highly of this line of action. It was practically etched in his annoyed expression. "We wait. We want the parents to get distraught and the Autobots to panic. We just keep her here. Alive. She's no bargaining chip if she dies. And just to keep you busy over the next few days, you get the honor of being her guardian." He threw me in Starscream's direction. I flailed around but didn't scream. He barely caught me. Even then it was painful. "What? But what about my patrol duty and monitor watch?" From his expression and by what I could infer from what he was saying, he usually hated these duties but he'd rather do anything but care for me. "I'll get replacements. Go." Starscream scowled but knew there was no point in arguing. He stomped off like a 5 year old. It was awkward and silent on the way to his quarters.

Once there he promptly dropped me (quire literally dropped) me on a low table and locked the door. He locked it so the only way to open it was with a key card, which when finished with it he stowed away. He opened a door on his torso and slipped it into a small compartment. Well, definitely no getting that key. I was stuck. I looked around the room. It was purple and it had a berth for sleeping, a low table, some shelves, a cabinet, a desk with a computer and lamp, and a chair. Not to mention a few things on the shelves. They were cleaning supplies for weapons, a few small explosives, and a laser rifle. _Why do you need that when you've got a gun on each arm? For show?_ Well, I was done with my investigation. And bored.

I decided to make the best of this. Why sit here bored? He was leaning back in a chair staring at a data pad. "So... Uh, Hi." "Why are you speaking to me?" "Well, I'm bored. What do you want me to do?" "Entertain yourself without me." "I'm _10_. And you don't seem all that entertained with what you're doing either. Paperwork right?" "Pretty much. Well, If you won't give me peace anyway, what do you want?" He set the data pad on the desk and looked back at me. "Nothing but a conversation. What say we get to know each other a bit since it seems like we'll be together for a while?" "Fine." "Ok, so you're name is...?" I knew his name, but I didn't want him to know that. If he thought I knew half as much about transformers as Hailey did, I might very well be in deep trouble. I might be used as an information source instead of Hailey, and that would mean no chance of escape, rescue, or the Autobots being able to do anything. I'd be dead before they even knew I was gone. "Starscream. Second in command of all Decepticons and soon to be leader." He smiled proudly. _Wow. Really? 'Soon to be leader'? In your dreams._ "Wow really? Cool! I guess you're very important." Again, I needed to seem clueless.

We spent the next 10 minutes discussing his importance when Starscream suddenly stopped and put his finger to the side of his head. I'd seen Autobots do this and I knew that meant they were being spoken to over the com. I cocked my head to the side in false confusion "What're you doing?" "Thundercracker and Skywarp are coming. They're curious and bored." "Hey! Same as me!" He Picked me up by my legs and opened the door. Once both jets had walked through the door, Starscream locked it again.

"So, Where's the squishy?" Starscream turned his hand and moved me so I was on his palm. I looked up at Skywarp who had asked and said "Squishy? Excuse me? And while we're on the subject, back at my school you called me "it" I'm not an it! I'm a she! A she named Taylor! Get it right!" This caused my captors to laugh. _Good. Maybe if I get them to like me they'll let their guard down and I can go free. _I felt kind of bad, but hey. I was deceiving Decepticons. We continued chatting for a while. All 3 jets in turn told me about themselves with comments from the others. When It was finally time to explain myself they asked a lot of questions. In fact so many I didn't tell about myself at all, just answered them. But it was ok, I didn't want them knowing too much about me anyway. "Why do you cover yourselves with cloth?" Skywarp asked. "Modesty." "Why do you have that stuff on your head?" asked Thundercracker. "Hair? Because it's attractive to other humans I guess." "Why don't you transform?" Starscream asked. "I wish we did! That'd be awesome! But humans just aren't built that way." When they were satisfied with their interrogation they decided to examine me more closely. I was passed from hand to hand, looked over, and poked. When I was passed to the final pair of hands, that being Skywarp he said "What is that noise? Shh..." There was absolute silence. He then raised me to his audio sensor and lowered his servo again. "It's you! There is a thumping, and something else..." "Oh! That's my heartbeat. The thumping you heard was the contraction of a muscle about here," I prodded myself about where my heart was "under my rib cage. It sends blood throughout my body. And the something else was probably me breathing. That was the expanding and contracting of my lungs with air." "There's a beat in your chest? Constantly? Isn't that annoying?" "No. I'm used to it. I don't even notice."

At this point they decided it was time for some recharge. I agreed. It must have been 11:00 at least. Skywarp and Thundercracker left and Starscream made a retrofit bed for me. He took a cloth from his weapon cleaning kit and ripped a thin strip off. He folded this strip in such a way to make a pillow and then set the cloth on the desk. He picked me off his shoulder on which I had been sitting (I had actually suggested it) and lied me down on the cloth. Then he folded the half I wasn't lying on over me. I now had a sort of sleeping bag. The cloth was slightly sooty and smelled like gunfire, but it wasn't horrible. He then went to his berth and was in stasis in no time. I sat and thought. I thought about what my family must be thinking and if I was ever getting home. I wondered what the next day would bring. And with that thought I drifted off sleep as well.


	33. The Taylor Chronicles Part 4

I woke up and Starscream was already up. He was looking at the same data pad he had last night. I stood up and stretched. Starscream finally noticed me when I yawned. He glanced at me, then stared at the data pad again.

I wanted to see what he was doing so I jumped off the table. It was thankfully not that high. I crossed the room with Starscream watching. He noticed the sound I made when I hit the ground after jumping. I walked up to his leg and without hesitation climbed up. He watched me, curious but wary. I climbed his leg to his knee and from there I scrambled onto the desk and sat off to the side.

"So, What'cha doing?" I said casually. "What was that?" he asked. "What was what?" "What you just did." "What? Climbing up your leg?" "Yes! Why did you do that?" "Because I wanted to get up on the desk and there's no ladder anywhere. I've done that once or twice at the Ark." "No one finds that weird?" "Hailey did it first. They did at first think it was odd." I wasn't too worried about this conversation. After all, I was just talking about climbing. But I did have to be careful.

He just nodded and went back to the data pad. I sat on the desk for a while then I got bored. He was resting his arm on the desk. I walked to his elbow and stepped up onto his arm. "Again?" he said with a smile, kindly not moving his arm. "Yup." I replied climbing up onto his shoulder. "You know, you never answered my question. What're you doing?" "I'm finishing off reports. I had monitor duty before we had to... you know." "Kidnap me?" "Think of it as temporary surprise adoption." "Temporary?" "Well, maybe. I've got no idea what goes through Megatron's head." "I see."

"You know, I think Thundercracker and Skywarp ought to see your little trick. I'll com them." He put his finger to the side of his head and I walked to his other shoulder as to get out of the way of his giant blue hand. He played his com aloud, obviously for me to hear. "Thunder, Sky what're you guys doing?" Starscream asked of his two peers. "Patrol duty. Boring as ever might I add." Thundercracker's voice crackled over the com. "Why do you ask?" added Skywarp. "I wanna show you guys something. When you're done come to my quarters. I'll let you in." Starscream told the two jets. "What is it?" piped up Skywarp. "It's very entertaining. You'll know more when you see it yourself." Starscream shut off the com and turned his head to smile at me. "You could do that again right?" "Yeah."

I felt like a performing monkey. You may be wondering at this point why I was doing all this climbing nonsense. Well, I was hoping that they'd start to think I was cute or something. That would hopefully lower their guard further. I still had no idea how I was gonna escape, but it was definitely best to get on their good side, even if I had to humiliate myself by doing tricks like a well trained puppy. Besides, its was actually kinda fun.

Starscream finished off his report while waiting for his friends to arrive. I on the other hand, went to explore the gigantic room a bit better. Starscream kept one optic on me the whole time. Instead of just looking around I went up to the shelves, walked over tabletops, and the like. I eventually contented myself to trace the alien letters engraved on a medal sitting atop a shelf with my finger. (Starscream had had to help me up there that time because it was eye level to him, so it must have been about 15 feet up the wall)

Finally there was a knock at the door. "Perfect timing. I just finished my reports." He said swiping the key card and once again stowing it away. "What was so important? And where's your little friend?" Thundercracker asked upon entrance. "Up here!" I called, still on the shelf. Starscream picked me up and set me on the floor by Skywarp's foot. "Watch this. Just let her, ok Sky?" "Let her what?" "You'll see." All three looked at me as I strode up to the purple and black ped and as I quickly climbed up his shin to his knee. I grabbed his knee cap and looked up at his face. It had a look that read "What the heck are you doing?" I ignored that, and continued to his hip from there to his chest and on to his shoulder. I leaned against the metal-I-don't-even-know-what protruding from his shoulder and said "Ta Da!" All three jets laughed at this escapade. Once the laughter died down I said "Hey Skywarp, hold out your arm straight toward Thundercracker." The purple mech looked at me and held out his arm to his blue comrade. I walked across it like a bridge and jumped onto Thundercracker's shoulder. From there I scrambled on top of his head. This caused another round of laughter.

Suddenly there was a voice at the door "What is with all the laughter?" It was Megatron. "Starscream, are you going to open the door or do I have to use the override code?" Megatron called sounding impatient. As Starscream walked to the door Thundercracker put out his hand and moved to get me, but I just jumped straight onto his palm. Thundercracker quickly wrapped his fingers around me. I did notice though, he did it much more gently than he had at my school. The jets wiped all signs of happiness off their faces. I followed suit and pretended to look annoyed, when in actuality I was very scared. Skywarp brushed my 'bed' off the table and kicked it under the table. They were obviously ashamed of their kindness. All this occurred in a few seconds. Megatron walked in and it seemed to get colder in the room. Was that just me? The jets lined up in a straight line and stood rigid. Megatron scanned the room and without a word Thundercracker held out his hand and unwrapped his fingers from around me. I suddenly felt vulnerable. Megatron smirked, he'd been looking for me. "Well, I see our guest isn't in too bad a condition." Then at the worst timing possible, my stomach growled. "What was that?" Megatron instantly looked at me, positive I was the cause of the strange noise. I guess it was obvious. I hadn't even realized I was starving. "Well, sorry! It's been a full 24 hours since I've eaten! Forgot about that huh?" Megatron grimaced at me, as if he was looking upon something utterly disgusting and said "Starscream, go fix your charge's problem. You two will go with him." Megatron ordered. Starscream made to take me from Thundercracker's hand but Megatron said "Oh no. She stays here. Too easy to escape if she goes along. I'll get Soundwave to send Rumble and Frenzy over. Maybe Ravage too. Once they get here, leave."

Megatron exited. The coldness left the room but the tension lingered. _What now?_ I internally asked myself. _Starscream was easy. I just needed to stroke his ego. Thundercracker and Skywarp became my friend due to their friendship with Starscream. Probably figured something along the lines of "If Starscream likes her, she must not be that bad right?" It was easy to make them think I'm cute. I'm much smaller than them. I'm the same size as the cassettes, and They don't have particularly big egos or strong friendships with the jets. They hate Skywarp. And I can't exactly strike up conversation with Ravage. I'm doomed._


	34. The Taylor Chronicles Part 5

A few minutes later, the cassettes arrived. Starscream set me down and gave Rumble the key card. Rumble stowed it away in a fashion similar to Starscream.

Once gone there was a long awkward silence. "So... Hi there." I said, finally breaking the silence. Rumble and Frenzy gave me a nod. Ravage just sat in the corner and watched us all. "Hey, you were the guy from the plane ride over right?" I said to Rumble, still trying to draw out a conversation. "Yes." "What are your names? I think that's a pretty good thing to know." "Yeah I guess. I'm Rumble." "I'm Frenzy" "Over there is Ravage." Rumble said jerking his blue thumb in the direction of the black cat in the corner. "Don't you think can escape just because we're your size." Rumble said. He transformed his arms into pile-drivers. "We pack a punch." He continued, turning them back into arms.

"Wasn't planning on it. Ask Starscream. I'm a good little captive." "I bet. You don't give us near as much trouble as your sister." "Really? Hm." "Yeah. No obnoxious null ray." piped up Frenzy. "Oh yeah. Forgot about that." "Where does she keep it?" asked Frenzy. "I dunno. Don't you? Not many places you can hide a gun." "I highly doubt you don't know." said Rumble turning his arms into pile-drivers again. "I don't because of fear for this exact situation. We all knew the day was coming. Deductive reasoning you know? You've taken Hailey 3 times, and my parents. So it was likely I was next." "Smart girl aren't you?" "Not really. Prowl told me that though. More than once." I was scared. They wanted information which I actually had but I didn't want them to know that. They couldn't know that. If they did Hailey might very well be dead. And after that, perhaps the human race. Then the Autobots.

Seeing the fear in my eyes, Rumble relented. He turned his pile-drivers to arms again and glared at me. It was silent for a while. Then I picked up conversation again. "So, Rumble, Frenzy. Where's your place in the army? Rank and whatnot." "Why should be tell ya?" asked Frenzy defensively. "The Autobots already know. I don't. What's the harm?" "True. Ok, we're spies." "Sounds about right." "What makes you say that?" "It explains your smaller form. Infiltration." "Exactly." Conversation continued. I didn't get buddy buddy with them like I did the jets, but they didn't threaten to kill me again.

Starscream came back. He had chips and water bottles. The cassettes returned the key card and left. While I was eating my bag of chips Starscream explained "We had to find out what the heck humans ate first, then we had to find a place that sold food. Then we actually had to find the place." "Don't worry. It was only an hour. And they only threatened to kill me once." "Oh, good." The rest of the day passed without much event. Well, as little event as possible when you've been "surprise adopted" by giant evil alien robots.


	35. The Taylor Chronicles Part 6

Today was the day Megatron finally contacted Optimus. He brought me in front of a screen and made a deal. I knew Optimus wouldn't follow it. Megatron didn't expect him to. He wanted to start a fight where the Decepticons had the advantage. I didn't see how a home-field advantage would help when they were outnumbered 2 to 1 but I of course didn't point this out.

The next day the battle arrived. When the first crashes were heard Starscream ran to Megatron, me in hand. "Megatron what do I do with her?" "This!" He roughly grabbed me out of Starscream's hand. He then grabbed Starscream's cockpit door and wrenched it open. He threw me inside and slammed it shut. "There! Now go battle!"

Starscream's cockpit was tinted so I could see out but no one could see in. This was awkward but I had a good view of the battle. Pressed up against circuitry I sat in the domed cockpit window. I saw everything 180 degrees, but tinted orange. I banged on the glass and shouted, but was unheard. Starscream was annoyed. He saw I'd creeped my way into his heart. I tried breaking the glass unsuccessfully. The battle went on a long time. Starscream was shot more than once. I saw Autobots lying on the ground in pools of energon, still firing. I felt responsible. The only reason this battle was still going was because the Autobots wouldn't leave without me. This is exactly what Megatron wanted.

Eventually Starscream was shot in the cockpit. The glass cracked above me. I stood. If I jumped I could barely reach the crack. I pounded it until my hands were bleeding. I kept going. Finally I wore down a hole in the cockpit. I stood on tip toes and stuck my bleeding hand out of the hole. Starscream noticed this and slammed my hand. I was sure my hand was shattered. I caressed it and stuck it back out. He noticed again and he kept his hand over the hole. But Starscream wasn't the only one who'd noticed my hand. Hound had noticed as well. He went for Starscream. He tackled him and punched the cockpit open. The glass had given me small cuts everywhere but I was ok. Hound picked me out of the cockpit and ran out of the fray. He commed Optimus "I've got Taylor!" "Let's get out of here!" The wounded were packed into Optimus' trailer and we rode out.

Once back to the base Ratchet told me I was malnourished, filthy, and my hand was broken. I was lucky it was my left. It wasn't shattered as I thought it was though. I had two broken fingers. Ratchet put the bones back in place then put it in a cast. At least my thumb wasn't broken. I could still play video games.


	36. A Trip Most Unpleasant

Bee was taking me home as usual. It was late at night, also as usual. It had been a week since Taylor was rescued. We were expecting another lull I Decepticon activity, but we still kept on the alert. Most humans were asleep at home and that's where I wanted to be just then. Bee and I were so engrossed in our conversation that we didn't notice the noises from overhead until it was too late. In a second we were in the air. I looked out the window and we were dangling below Starscream with Thundercracker and Skywarp in V formation on either side. Bee had a grappling hook through his roof. Unfortunately for Bee we were dangling by said hook and I can't imagine that tickling. "Bee! I'm so sorry! This never would've happened If you didn't have to take me home! I-" "Shut up!" Starscream cut me off in the middle of my nervous breakdown. "Sorry Bee, but I can't sit here helpless." I apologized in advance. I started to tug and pull at the hook in Bee's roof. I knew it probably hurt but hopefully I could get us down. It was no use. I stuck my head out of Bee's window. I was glad I hadn't been successful. We were way to high to survive impact. Actually Bee had a slight chance of survival. Me on the other hand? Not so much.

I tried to contact Optimus, but all I got was static. "Ah, trying to send an SOS huh? That's why we brought Soundwave." Crud. Well, there's no way of getting through now. I shut off my com just in case.

My necklace. That was my only chance at the base. I had to hide it. Would they finally get suspicious of it? I unclipped it and wondered where to put it where they wouldn't find it. I reached my hands up the back of my shirt and clipped I around the back of my bra. Since I was wearing a jacket you couldn't see the ring. I couldn't do anything about my com link though so I just took my hair out of the ponytail I was wearing. I put the hair tie around my wrist like a bracelet. I zipped up my jacket and hoped they wouldn't take it off. I was getting ready to be searched. I just hoped they didn't bring out a metal detector or search too thoroughly.

Bee had an idea though. "Hailey, I need you to get out and grab onto the rope attached to the hook through my roof." Bee said only inside his cab. I climbed through the window and no one noticed me. My weight was too miniscule. They were more focused on flying. Starscream actually seemed to be having a bit of trouble. Not surprising since he was dangling a car below him. I grabbed onto the rope tightly, not knowing what to expect. Bumblebee transformed. This next part happened in about 20 seconds.

Bee, with the hook in his chest grabbed the rope and swung up on top of Starscream. I let go of the rope and moved to Bee's shoulder. I gripped one of his horns and held on for dear life. Bee grabbed part of Starscream's wing and twisted it. He shifted his weight forward and Starscream started heading downwards. Bee quickly severed the rope attached to the hook (still lodged in his chest). Thundercracker and Skywarp dove right after Starscream. They caught up and partially transformed. They were planes that each had an arm. They grabbed Bee and strung him between them. Skywarp had his feet and Thundercracker had his hands. Starscream got his arm out too and scooped me off Bee's shoulder and shoved me into his cockpit with Soundwave. How did no one notice the whole ordeal? I'm still not sure to this day.


	37. I Should Be Used To This By Now

Once at the now familiar base the jet triplets fully transformed. Bee was harshly dropped to the ground. Once he stood he couldn't even dust himself off before Thundercracker shoved his gun to Bee's back and pushed him forward. Starscream carried me by one leg. I dangled helplessly while we went down the maze of hallways. Bee looked at me sympathetically. We passed by a few Decepticons who only gave us glances and went back to their duties.

We finally reached the command room right when I thought my leg would fall off. Starscream flipped me so I was on his palm. I was passed to Megatron as the blood rushed away from my head. "Hey there Megs." I said, still woozy from too much blood in my brain. Upon hearing his hated nickname he dropped me, I guess as a punishment of sorts. (Said punishment was a great way to break my spine.) Bee quickly lunged forward and caught me. He quickly stepped back in his place in front of Thundercracker's gun. The Decepticons laughed at him.

He cradled me to his chassis and covered most of me with his hand. I was grateful for the feeling of security it provided, even if it was false. I curled up in a ball under Bee's protective hand and leaned my head over where his spark chamber was. I could hear the whirring of his internal systems and the quick, scared pulses of his spark.

Why was I so scared? It's not like any of this was new to me. Then it clicked. I'd never been with anyone else and I'd always called Optimus. I felt responsible that Bee was here. I needed to take my mind off that so I tried to focus on the noise of Bee's internal systems trying to repair the hole from the hook. In fact the blasted thing was still there. It had slipped below the level of the hole and was neatly closed. I made a mental note of that. Who knows when a grappling hook will come in handy?

"Take the Autobot to the brig. The flesh creature too. Put her in her special cage. And make sure to watch them closely." Megatron ordered. Thundercracker shoved his gun into Bee's back again and forced him to follow Soundwave.

Once at the brig (in the lowest level of the Annihilation) Bee was shoved into the cell. Thundercracker kept him at gunpoint while Soundwave pried me out of Bee's grasp. I tried to hang on in vain. Soundwave pulled me off easily. What did I expect? He dropped me into a box made of an unknown clear material. He shut it. I could stand, but when I did my head was an inch from the ceiling. It looked like I could lie down, but barely. I guess I'd find out tonight. I noticed there was no air holes. "What about breathing?" I called. Breathing was good. "Sufficient oxygen for a few hours." was Soundwave's emotionless reply. "And after that?" I called to his retreating form. He ignored me. Perfect.

As soon as the Decepticons left, Bee stepped up to my cage. "I'm so sorry I-" he started but I cut him off "What else could you have done? I couldn't ask any more of you. I should be the one apologizing. It's me they want." "I'm the least physically threatening. If Optimus would've been taking you home we wouldn't be here." "You were ambushed. Stop beating yourself up about it."

Conversation continued for 2 hours. We tried to cheer each other up fruitlessly. "It's getting hard to breathe..." I said. The lack of fresh air was getting to me. 2 minutes later Soundwave walked in. He hit a few buttons on the cell's control panel and my box opened. I jumped out before he could shut it again. "Human's need to breathe primitive. But Lord Megatron wants you alive." Soundwave explained seeing my confused but relieved expression. "How did you know I was-" Soundwave cut me off "Human believes we weren't watching? Foolish."

Soundwave sat in a chair across the hall and stared at a data pad in his hand, glancing at me and Bee frequently. Now that we were together they didn't trust us to not mess with the cameras. I was tired. I had no idea what time it was but Bee looked like he needed recharge too. It had been a hectic day. Bee offered his hand. I climbed on and he walked over to the berth in the cell. He lay down and set me next to him. It was cold. Bee saw I was freezing (Since the 'Cons liked the place freezing for whatever reason). He rolled onto his side and put his hand over me. I was now much warmer. "Why is it that Autobots are so warm?" I said smiling at Bee. I glanced at Soundwave. I could imagine him rolling his eyes but I couldn't tell because of his visor. He put on some headphones and plugged the jack into his shoulder. I'd seen him do this when I was Rumble.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Bee. "Well your hand is warm but when I was on Starscream and Megatron's palms they were cold as you'd expect metal to be." "We're just built different. 'Cons eyes are red; ours are blue. 'Cons fly; unfortunately we don't. Hey you know how our sparks are blue right?" "Yeah." A picture of Optimus' spark came to mind. It was a shimmering blue pulsing orb. "And you know that they are constantly pulsing right? Just like a human heartbeat?" "Yeah. Where are you going with this?" "'Cons sparks don't pulse. They're just blue orbs of energy." "They don't shimmer either do they?" "Nope. So we have a few small differences." "Not to mention the fact that 'Cons wanna kill me. You on the other hand?" I patted Bee's hand that was still over me to prove my point. We laughed briefly and fell asleep shortly afterward.

(Now I know what you're thinking, curled up in front on your computer at home. We're not all lovey-dovey here. Fear just has a way of making you cling ever the more strongly onto friendship and even the thinnest strands of hope.)


	38. Testing

Hook woke us up early. He had obviously relieved Soundwave in the night. He opened the cell and shoved Bee out the door. I was in Bee's hands. He was covering me again. I twisted forward and moved his thumb down a bit so I could see. Before we were even out of the solitary hallway to the brig Hook said "Just so you don't get any ideas," and he pointed not his blaster but Megatron's fusion cannon at Bee's head. Apparently Megatron let Hook borrow it since he was going alone. He really wanted to take no risks this time.

Once we arrived at what I guessed was the 'Con med bay Hook returned Megatron his weapon. Hook almost looked disappointed. Megatron lazily reattached it and said "I trust you slept well? I hope so because we've got plans for you." In the room was Hook, Soundwave, Megatron, and the jet triplets. Bee was strapped to the wall in clear view of the table I'd been set on. The jet triplets watched Bee. Megatron, Hook, and Soundwave gathered around the table. Megatron on the opposite side from Bee, Soundwave was on his right and Hook was on the left.

"Soundwave. Cut off her hair and remove the sleeves. I don't want them getting in the way." ordered Megatron. "Woah woah. Let's not." I said jumping away from Soundwave's hand. I brought out my hair-tie and put my hair up in a loose bun and rolled up my sleeves all the way to my shoulders. "Out of the way." I said. I looked up at Megatron's amused expression. "Alright then. That will do for now." With a look from Megatron Hook grabbed my arms he lifted me off the table and Soundwave finally managed to catch both my flailing legs. They strapped me to the table. I felt like one of those dead butterflies behind the glass pinned up in a museum.

Soundwave brought out a transformer sized needle and lowered it in my direction. "Let's see If humans and energon mix." said Megatron. He smiled at the look of absolute fear on my face. I hated shots. _Hated_ them. And that was when it was good for me and human sized. I wasn't even sure if this thing would fit in my vein and positive it wouldn't be good for me. I had felt odd even after eating just a tiny corner of energon. I had no idea what liquid energon directly into my blood stream would do. I really didn't want to find out. Bee was thrashing against his restraints.

I didn't see what happened after that because Soundwave shoved the needle into my vein none to gently. It fit. Felt like it did so barely. It was painful. The pain started out strong right where the needle was and it spread. It spread fast with the aid of my fast beating heart. My heart rate sped up until it was almost a hum. I was in a cold sweat. My hair stood on end. I watched as the bright pinkish purple substance disappeared from the syringe and into my fragile body.

After about 10 minutes the pain stopped. I was panting and the Decepticons in the room were smiling wider than I though possible. They were enjoying themselves enormously. "What the pit was that for? _Amusement_?" I yelled. I wanted to kick that smug smile right off Megatron's face and continue to cut his head off his body. I struggled against the restraints. I didn't expect it to work but at least it was something to take out my rage on. "No, but as a matter of fact it was _very_ amusing."

Bee was at this point looking at the ground slumped over. He had scorch marks all over him. The jet triplets were all holding what looked like cattle prods and all looked very pleased. _How dare you? You can't poke Bee with a cattle prod and get away with it! _I wanted to take the cattle prod and prod them all beyond recognition._ Oh Primus. With thoughts like that I may as well be a Decepticon. _

I needed to take my mind off the pain and the revenge I wanted so badly. I looked at where the needle had been a while ago and saw a dot of blood. _Ok, so not that bad. On the outside anyway. I'm not so sure I can say not so bad about my insides though. _

Just then a weird feeling passed over me. My leg slammed into the table. My knee had to twist painfully to allow the leg to hit the table hard. My head also turned to the side and stuck to the table. Soundwave moved his hand closer and his hand was pulled by an invisible force to stick to my leg as well. I realized that the part that had superglued itself to the table was my mechanical shin. And the side of my head that was stuck to the cold metal table was the side with my com link chip. I was a living super electromagnet. That's why Soundwave's hand was now stuck too.

Soundwave was trying to pry his hand off and Hook tried to help, getting stuck to Soundwave in the process. Megatron just stared at me contemplating. After about 15 minutes the effects started to wear off so Soundwave finally got his hand back and I could move into a more comfortable position.

"Soundwave. Run a metal detector scan over her. _Scrap_ I thought. Soundwave passed a scanner over me. He showed the readings to Megatron. "Ok so we need to check here," He pointed to the side of my head, "and here." he pointed at my leg. "This reading in the middle is just the zipper." He said. I was thankful for his wrongful assumption. I wondered why though. He was usually so thorough... "You sure we shouldn't check it out in case? See, this why _I_ should be leader. You could be neglecting something important!" _Shut up Starscream! _I thought. "Shut up Starscream!" Megatron echoed my thoughts. _Thanks Screamer. He won't do it just because you pointed it out. Sucks for you guys!_ I thought. I didn't show my relief on my face.

Hook rolled up the leg of my pants. He passed a scanner over it again. He held a small who-knows-what over the area of metal that the scanner detected and the little hinged door opened reluctantly. "Lookie here! That sure aint human anatomy." Hook called to the room at large. The jet triplets abandoned Bee and crowded around. "Told you I shot her!" said Thundercracker to his peers. "You said you took her out!" argued Skywarp. "All of you, shut up!" Megatron shoved them aside. They walked back to the unconscious Bee. He looked and said "I see you haven't escaped us in entirely one piece." With that he grabbed a large part of the machinery and yanked it clean out. I was very grateful I had no nerves in that. Although the sparks hitting my skin wasn't pleasant.

"Megatron. You may wish to see this." said Soundwave. He had my ear folded forward, revealing my chip. "That's what I was telling you about! The signal Soundwave jammed when we picked them up wasn't Bumblebee's! That's what caused it!" yelled Starscream, pointing at me. "It is also the probable cause for her previous escapes. Let's take care of that." He grabbed the chip and again yanked it off. Blood poured profusely. After all, it had been surgically put there. Emphasis on _had_. "Soundwave. Examine this and-" He was cut off by bloody the chip exploding. The blast was a lot bigger than you'd expect for such a tiny thing. Megatron stared wide eyed at his blackened and bloody hand and wrist. "Gotta love Wheeljack." I said up to Megatron. I had to hold back giggles. His expression was priceless. He collected his senses and said "Get her out of here. The Autobot too." Bee finally stirred and carried me back to the brig. I was even more defenseless than ever.


	39. Bad Prospects

I couldn't walk. I was loosing blood. Fast. "This is just great!" I yelled at the ceiling. I was lying down. I glared at the ceiling as if it was the cause for all my problems. "Maybe you should sit up. Get your head above your heart. And slow your heartbeat. That'll make the bleeding slow." Suggested Bee. I sat up "And how do you suppose I slow my heart rate? It's not exactly voluntary." I crossed my legs and arms and awaited the reply. "Calm down." Bee said. "Calm down? I'm bleeding like crazy and I can't even walk!" I fumed, causing more sparks to fly from my busted leg. I now had to keep the little door open lest I burn my flesh. "I'm sorry." Bee stared at the floor. He was standing by the side of the berth. "I shouldn't be taking my anger out on you. It's not your fault. Sit down. You look unsteady." I said, regretting snapping at him. I fiddled with the little door just below my knee while Bee gingerly lowered himself onto the berth wincing. "Hey I've got an idea. I'll tie my hair in a ponytail over the bleeding area. That should help." "You sure?" "Blood's all over my hair anyways. And we've got nothing better."

"I wish we could do something for you." I said as I tied up my hair over the bleeding spot. My hair turned red quickly but there was no stream down my neck anymore. I wiped off as much blood as I could on the wall. "Let them clean it up. They've more than earned it." I said looking at the confused yellow bug. "Oh, definitely." he smiled as I put my hood up over my stained hair. Bee lay back and started to doze. I was tired too. I limped over to him. With difficulty I used 3 limbs to climb up onto his chest, dragging the useless limb along with me. I was careful to avoid any black sore spots. Bee put his hand over me and I fell asleep listening to the the hum of his internal systems and the pulsing of his spark.


	40. Optimus' Anxiety

I've neglected to say what was going on at the Ark all this time! Let's hear this part from our leader's point of view.

Optimus Prime

**Morning**

Ok, so Bumblebee wasn't back this morning. He probably just stayed Hailey's garage. He'll be back soon.

**Noon**

Ok. Now I'm starting to worry. I had Ratchet scan the area around the Ark and Hailey's house for Bumblebee's signal. Nothing. Maybe he's at some event with Hailey. "Don't you think something happened to him?" asked Cliffjumper. "Personally yes. But I'm not sure so we can't just barge into the Annihilation for no reason." Nonetheless I start to brainstorm rescue plans with Prowl.

**Nightfall**

Now I'm positive. Not a word from Bumblebee. And the emergency self destruct signal from Hailey's chip went off. We'll finalize the plans and attack at dawn.


	41. Rescue at Last

I woke up before Bee. I gently raised my head. _Great. The blood from my hair stained my hood. Well at least Bee isn't bloody._ I sit up. Still not awaking Bee. _Scratch that. Blood from my clothes is all over him. Oops._ Bee finally stirs. "Sorry." I said quickly. "For what exactly?" he asked, smiling. "For one waking you up. Another thing, this." I gestured to the area I had just been lying on. "Oh well. No big deal. I don't exactly look pristine as it is." "True." I smiled. It was amazing that we could still make jokes in a time like this.

Optimus Prime

We left the Ark at 6:00 on the nose. The plan was to make a big entrance to draw the Decepticons to the front. Mirage and Hound would try to find Hailey and Bumblebee. The drive seemed to take an hour even though it was only 30 minutes. I felt horrible. Throughout the 17 mile drive I kept thinking _What are the Decepticons doing to them as I'm thinking? Are they still even alive? Can't worry about that. Big battle ahead._

We finally arrive at the heavy purple door. The security sensors picked us up 2 minutes ago. The front of the ship is already flanked with Decepticons. Including Megatron. Of course. "Decepticons! Attack!" he calls. "Autobots! Attack!" I call to my team. We rush forward into the fray.

Hailey

There was alarms going off everywhere. "They're here!" I smiled widely to Bee who smiled back. "Don't get your hopes up meatbag." said Hook. "You're not gonna fight?" I asked. "Uh, no. We're really not that stupid. You'll easily escape without a guard." He looked like he was annoyed he couldn't join the fight.

Sometime later I saw Hound. Hook followed my glance. He looked from me to the hallway. "Just another Decepticon off to battle." I said, shrugging my shoulders. Hound pressed himself up to the wall and suddenly there was a regular looking appliance against the wall. Looked like a vent control box. Hound had made the hologram just before Hook turned the corner. He walked up to the box. He was looking at it intently.

I quickly turned to Bee. I had been sitting on his lap. I jammed my arm through the hole that was still present in his chest and fished out the hook in 2 seconds. I handed him the hook and pointed at the solitary security camera. He nodded and lobbed the hook at the camera. It lodged itself there. Hook turned as I pulled out my null ray and hit him square in the chest. Hound came and busted the control box to the cell. The energon bars disappeared and Hound walked in. "Boy am I glad to see you two!" he said smiling down at us. "You think _you're_ the relieve one?" I smiled up at him. He noticed my leg and stained hair. He grimaced. "Yeah. I know. We can catch up later. Let's just get outta here!" I said. "Hound to Mirage. I found them! Optimus let's get out of here! They aren't lookin' so hot." Hound said over the com. "Agreed. We aren't doing well out here. I'll get the wounded out while you get out." I heard Prime announce over Hound's com. He was grunting a bit, he was probably in hand to hand combat with Megatron, as usual. "I'll meet you at the eastern hall to the galley. It'll be easy to get out from there." came Mirage's voice over the com. "Gotcha. See ya in a few cycles!" replied Hound. Bee carried me as he followed Hound.

It was smooth sailing until Hound turned the corner and immediately fell to the ground. One reflector stood smiling. The other two joined him and started firing. Hound transformed at the same time as Bee. I was in the air for a second then I landed with a thud on the seat inside Bee. I ignored the pain in my back on which I had landed and watched as Bee sped after Hound dodging the laser fire. We met up with Mirage and shortly after burst out the door along with more Decepticon reinforcements. Optimus was already ready and we sped away immediately. It was over. Or so we thought...


	42. Sector 7

Ok, in this chapter I make a bunch of Transformer 2007 movie references. I don't own Sector 7, Agent Simmons, Mr. Banachek, or Transformers. Just the plot. And me.

"Captain. We've got a visual on the strange energy signals from Sky Spy III." reported lieutenant Foxtrot. "Good. We've finally pinned it down." replied captain Taylor. "It was difficult to get a lock on it sir. The was no pattern. It would appear randomly and not be long enough to find. All we knew is that it was nothing we've ever seen before." "We'll get some answers now." They arrived at the main monitor and lieutenant Foxtrot showed his superior the live video feed. "A bunch of cars? So?" asked the perplexed captain. "You need to see what we got about 2 minutes ago." He rewound the feed and showed about 40 giant robots turn into the innocent vehicles shown a moment ago. "Contact Sector 7." barked captain Taylor.

* * *

"Giant robots you say? And you believe they're alien?" "Yes, Mr. Banachek." replied Captain Taylor. "We'll handle it." he hung up the phone. He punched in the intercom line and said "This is Banachek. Agent Simmon's squad. We've got possible NBEs in quadrant alpha zeta. Intercept and capture."

* * *

"I can't wait to get home and see my family." I said as I watched the dust cloud from Optimus sweep over Bee. "And shower?" he said jokingly. "Shower and get medical attention. Ha, Ratchet won't be pleased." we laughed briefly. "Can't you just imagine Ratchet flinging wrenches at Megatron's head? Hey... What's that?" "I dunno. There's usually no one this far out in the desert. I'll tell Prime. Hey Optimus. See the little black specks? I'm pretty sure they're cars." Bee said the last part over his com. "Affirmative. Continue driving. They can't tell us apart from ordinary cars." Optimus replied over Bee's com. "Ok, if Prime thinks it's no biggie." Bee said.

We continued. The cars didn't turn, but followed. "Optimus. They're following." "Then we'll not go to the Ark in case. Follow me to the city and disperse. We'll meet at the Ark in an hour. Com if you've got a follower you can't shake." Optimus announced over the com. Bee was playing it aloud as well for my benefit.

We turned toward Octomotro and the black cars sped up. The Autobots didn't react. That is until they tried to shoot at Mirage who was bringing up the rear. "Autobots! Disperse into the city and loose 'em!"

Everyone sped off in different directions. Bee was slowest. He wasn't exactly in top condition. "Bee, I know you're feeling crummy but we gotta hurry!" I said panicking as a black car was closing in. At that point Optimus showed up again. "Bumblebee! Get into my trailer!" the door dropped in front of us. Bee put on a sudden burst of speed, his parts grinding painfully, and sped inside as the door shut.

I flopped out of the car and Bee transformed. He picked me up and set me on the berth beside him. "Thanks Optimus. You saved our lives there! I never would have been able to out run them." Bee said gratefully over the com. "I realized that. That's why I came back for you. No bot gets left behind." Optimus replied. "What do those goons want?" I asked. "I dunno but they're not Decepticons." replied Bee. "So they're humans?" "I guess." "How did they find out?" "We _did_ just have a big fight." "True. Why do they want you guys though?" "I dunno. You're the human. What do you think?" "I guess for questioning. Or testing. Or both." "Ok, so only slightly better than Decepticons. Lovely."

Just then the straight forward momentum we had switched as Optimus swerved. We slid. Optimus swerved again. I fell off the berth. Optimus fell on his side. Bee nearly missed crushing me. The trailer door was cut open and Bee and I were shot. I looked at the dart in my arm. It was a tranquilizer dart. I started to lose consciousness as one of the men said "A human? With their lot?" "I dunno. Bring her to the boss. Jeez she looks terrible." And I blacked out.


	43. Agent Simmons' Hospitality

I awoke in a plain white room. On the Floor. I sat up. I was dizzy and I looked where I though the dart had been. Just a little dot. I looked up I started to fiddle with my lopsided ponytail, sending bits of dried blood to the floor. I tried to brush through my hair with my fingers. I got most of the knots and dried blood out. Just then a man in a black tux walked in. "Hello I'm agent Simmons. You don't need to worry about you alien torturers anymore. Let's get you cleaned up." I was a bit out of it. I didn't take in anything he said. I allowed him to help me up. I stood on one foot and didn't move. I couldn't. That's when he noticed my busted leg. "I'll get a wheelchair." he said. He clapped his hands and a minute later some lanky teen gave him a wheelchair. Agent Simmons wheeled it over and I plopped into it. I put my working leg on the foot rest. I had to move the other one manually.

I was wheeled through a maze of gray hallways. Eventually we reached a door and stopped. "What size clothes do you usually wear?" Agent Simmons asked gently. I gave him my sizes and he wheeled me through the door. A minute later the same lanky boy came in and set a plain white T-Shirt and jeans on my lap. "Get cleaned up. You can change into those." They left.

I looked around. I was still dazed but It was obvious that it was a bathroom. I used the toilet for the first time in 24 hours then got undressed and took a shower. I had to balance on one leg. I stayed in and kept using shampoo until the water didn't run pink. Once I was satisfied I changed into the clothes I'd been given. Not my style. The shirt was a guy shirt, which I didn't mind. The jeans were bootcut which I wasn't used to. Oh well.

The water had taken me out of my daze and I thought about what Agent Simmons had said to me. "_You don't need to worry about you alien torturers anymore._" Did he mean the Autobots?

I limped back to the wheelchair. I noticed that my ear was still bleeding. I took down the first aid kit from its shelf and applied a lot of gauze and held it in place with medical tape. I also put a band-aid over my not-so-little needle mark. The scab had come off so it was bleeding too. I went over to the sink and used the comb, toothbrush, and toothpaste that had been set out. I wheeled out feeling refreshed. Agent Simmons was waiting. "Feeling better after your hour long clean up? What exactly did they do to you to put you in that condition?" Agent Simmons pounced on me the second I was out. I stopped wheeling (With difficulty. I still wasn't used to this chair.) "Woah woah. You're the guys that chased us?" "Yes. We rescued you." "Rescued me? No! _They_ rescued me! I want to see them. _Now_." "Now listen-" "I don't care! I'm saying not another word until I see them." I crossed my arms and glared. I needed to know what they were doing to my friends.

Agent Simmons sighed. He saw I wasn't budging so he said. "Fine." He grabbed the handlebars on the wheelchair. He led me down the halls until we reached a big room. He opened the doors and the Autobots were all sitting. They were being scanned, poked, and prodded by a bunch of people in lab coats. "Guys!" I called. They looked away from the scientists and their confused and scared looks brightened slightly. I wheeled away from Agent Simmons as fast as I could. He yelled after me "You're not supposed to be in there!" I ignored him. I wheeled toward my friends. Lab coat people cut me off saying "You're not supposed to be in here." and tried to grip my handlebars to take me back.

I looked up at Optimus who was closest and he reached an arm out. The lab coat people immediately retreated in fear. He gently gripped my middle with two fingers and lifted me up. He then twisted his hand so I rested on his palm. The lab coats and Agent Simmons looked up in awe as I hugged Optimus' thumb. "What did they do to you? Are you ok? Where are we? Who are these guys?" I rattled off the pressing questions. "Calm down. We're fine. I'm not sure what they're doing. I don't know who these people are or where we are." Optimus answered consecutively.

"Ahem. We need to question these aliens. We need to question you too sweetie." Agent Simmons called up. "Just let us go! Can't you see these are the good guys? Would I run to bad guys? Wouldn't the bad guys just squish you on sight? These guys could easily! Look at those peds! The people who put me in the condition you found me in are the bad guys!" I yelled at Simmons. I didn't know why, but I didn't like this guy. "This is the stuff we need to know! Now get your pal to put you down so we can talk!" "You wanna talk so bad? Come on up. He's got a spare hand." "I... uh..." He couldn't find a good argument to that. "Fine. Do I just ask then? Or take a number?" he asked sarcastically. Optimus set his hand on the ground. Simmons stepped onto it and Optimus raised his hand slowly.

Once Simmons reached my eye level I glared at him and said "What'd ya want?" I still had one arm wrapped around Optimus' thumb and I leaned against the digit comfortably. Simmons looked awkward and finally sat. He kept looking at the edges of Optimus' palm. He thought he would fall. "What do you think he's gonna do? Drop ya?" I asked sarcastically as he fidgeted. "As a matter of fact, yes."

"Anyways... Who are these characters?" Simmons jerked a thumb in Optimus' direction. "We're Autobots. We're Autonomous robotic Organisms from the planet Cybertron." Optimus answered. "I feel like I've heard that before. Anyways. I need to know, who's holding the remote?" "Excuse me?" I said, raising an eyebrow. "Who's controlling them?" "No one! They're sentient beings!" I yelled at him. "Right. And I'm Princess Peach." he said rolling his eyes. "What so hard to get through that thick skull of yours? They have thoughts, minds, personalities, memories!" "Ok. I can see we're getting no where. Hey Gigantor. Put me and the girl down." I looked around the perimeter of the room and noticed for the first time that there were armed soldiers all around us. Optimus set Simmons down quickly. He then looked at me sadly then set me down as well.

Simmons wheeled me out and I caught Optimus' eyes. The lab coats were closing in on them.


	44. Questions

I was put back in the same white room. The dried blood had been swept away and a cot was now in place. There was also a desk. The desk had a pencil, pencil sharpener, pen, lamp, and a packet. Simmons wheeled me inside and said "We'll talk in the morning." And shut the door. He locked it behind him. I knew because of the loud click. I wheeled up to the desk. The packet I mentioned earlier looked like a test. There was a question and space underneath it to answer. It was quite a few pages thick. I had nothing better to do so I picked up the pencil.

Question 1: How did you come into contact with these aliens?

They saved me from the Decepticons.

Question 2: Who's the leader?

Like I'll tell you.

Question 3: Who's second in command?  
Still not saying.

And so it went on. I'll just list a few of what I remember.

Question 17: Did these creatures harm you?

No way! They'd never!

Question 21: Who's controlling the robots?

Ok, They're sentient for the last slaggin' time! Jeez!

Question 46: How long have you know them?

Since midsummer.

Question 48: Why didn't you tell anyone?

I knew something like this would happen.

Question 50: Do they have a base?

Duh.

Question 51: If so, where?

Why the slag would I tell you?

Question 66: Does anyone else know about them?

Nope.

I was careful of my answers. I did one of two things on each. I'd either tell them the truth or not answer. Question 66 was the only one I lied about. I didn't want my parents or friends to be dragged here too. It finally ended at question 70. Once I had sufficiently doodled all over the pages I flopped out of the chair and onto the cot with difficulty and fell asleep.


	45. A Not So Happy Agent

"What's this?" Agent Simmons asked next morning. He shook the packet in my face. "Good morning to you too." I said. I was still sitting on my bed at this point. I was brushing through my bed head with a comb Agent Simmons had brought. "Doodles everywhere and most of the questions say 'Why the slag would I tell you?'" "Interesting expression huh? Autobots taught me. Or rather Sideswipe and Sunstreaker. Heh. Cybertronian swearwords." I smiled at the memory of when I'd first started using those words. There had been a lot of shocked expressions and a lot of facepalms when I told them where I picked it up from. I had never actually told my parents that that was cussing in Cybertronian so they were fine with it. I was yanked back from those humorous thoughts by Agent Simmons yelling at me. "I couldn't care less about your alien cussing! I want answers! You only gave half of what I want. You answered questions about meeting and interacting with them. No questions were actually answered about leadership or base location or anything actually important!" "Duh. That's kinda the point." I sat there calmly combing while looking up at Agent Simmons who's face was as red as Tracks' and looked like he was trying not to explode.

He took a deep breath and slid his hand down his face. He looked at me while turning from red to pink and said in a measured voice. "Look. I don't want to have to get rough. Either re-do the questionnaire, with _real_ answers, or else." "Or else what? You can't do squat to me." I finished brushing so I set the comb on the cot next to me.

"What is your name?" Agent Simmons asked after a while of silence. I didn't think it wise to tell him my real name. "Kayla Witwicky." I lied. He didn't seem to notice the transformer reference I'd just made and said "Alright Kayla. You said no one else knows. I highly doubt that. Parents? Friends?" "Nope. My parents didn't love me. I was an '_accident_.' Both my parents were smokers and alcoholics. They abused me so I ran away while they were drunk. Never looked back. Friends? You've got 'em all locked up in that room there. My family really." I lied up a storm there, but tried to keep that fact from showing on my face. He waited a minute and said. "You said they met you when they saved you from 'Decepticons'." "I was walking around, this was the night I'd run away, and I bumped into them. They decided to take me for testing, questioning, and the like. On transit the Autobots engaged them. The 'Con I'd been riding in was shot and falling to Earth, the 'Cons fly. I was gonna die in the crash so I jumped. I fell and one of the Autobots caught me. I feinted so they took me to the base." I had told him mostly the truth. I had to tweak it a bit to match my previous lies. "Who are these Decepticons you keep talking about?" "They're the evil guys. Whereas the Autobots want to save all sentient life, including us, the Decepticons want to enslave all sentient life. Except humans. They wanna kill us all. As the Autobot leader says, 'Freedom is the right of all sentient beings'. The evil leader says 'humans don't deserve to live.'"

"Ok. So why were you so banged up when we found you?" "The Autobots had just rescued me. I was kidnapped along with the little yellow bot that wasn't lookin' so great. Actually I need you to take me to one of the Autobots." "Oh? Why is that?" "He's my doctor of choice." "But-" "I'm sure he wouldn't mind you overseeing the whole procedure." "...We have excellent physicians here. We-" "They can't fix this." I pointed at my leg. As if to emphasis my point a few sparks flew out from the broken hydraulics. "Fine."

He wheeled me to the giant room again. The lab coats were all over the Autobots again. "Where's Ironhide?" I asked. I had noticed his absence as I looked down the line. "They're taking us all one by one for questioning. While we're in here we're still being scanned." explained Optimus.

Mid-sentence he had looked down to see a lab coated man tottering on his platform. He'd leaned too far out with his scanner. Optimus used one finger to push him back into a steady position. He'd continued with his sentence through the whole ordeal as if it was nothing. It was nothing to the Autobots and I. To the lab coat man however, he now looked up in gratitude to Prime and was a lot more respectful of Optimus' personal space with his scanner. No one seemed to notice this little encounter but Optimus, the lab coat guy, and I. And if Agent Simmons had seen it, he didn't react.

"Anyways. Let's just get this over with. Kayla here says one of you is a doctor. She obviously needs medical attention. Our physicians will take care of the bleeding behind her ear. You just fix the leg. We'll be observing the entire time. No funny business." Simmons ordered. Pretty big talk coming from him. A human demanding stuff from robots that are 2 stories tall. Optimus raised an optic ridge. He looked away from Simmons to me. I shrugged my shoulders. I tried to say _just go along with it and don't do anything stupid_ with my eyes. Apparently Optimus got it enough to stay silent.

"Of course not. Where do you want me to go?" Ratchet said as he stood. "Depends on what you need." replied Simmons. "Well if we were back at base I'd raid Wheeljack's scrap pile for parts. Do you have anything like that? Just broken pieces of machinery." "As a matter of fact we do." "Ok, I'll need something to sterilize the parts with. Preferably water and soap. And an area to work." "Ok, we've got a garage you can work in. We'll move the parts and cleaning supplies there. Only problem is tools and you actually getting there." "I'm covered for both." He transformed into his ambulance alt mode. I wheeled over and he opened the door. I clambered inside and Ratchet said "Lead the way." A few soldiers were put into Ratchet and we were led through the wide halls to the garage. Once there the soldiers and I were unloaded. I was deposited on my wheelchair. Ratchet transformed. He grabbed a few slabs of concrete lying around and made a make shift berth. He set me onto it and began working. He had a bunch of tools built into his body.

He scanned me first of all. "Wow. What did they _do_ to you?" "Well let's see. Ripped out part of my mechanical leg, ripped off a surgically attached chip, and injected liquid energon into my veins." I listed still lying on the concrete. "Woah woah, _liquid energon_?" "Uh huh. They took out a needle and injected it directly into my blood stream." I said. I pointed out the band-aid. "Energon?" Simmons piped up. "Our basic fuel." explained Ratchet. "Without it they basically drop dead." I said propping myself up on my elbow. "Hailey, there's still energon in your systems. I'm surprised you're still alive." said Ratchet. "Forget that. We'll take care of the 'energon'. You just fix her leg." Simmons said impatiently.

Ratchet started to work on my leg. While he was I said "Hey Ratchet, how's Bee doing?" "Fine. Could be better. I'll need to patch up that hole he's got, but other than that all he needs is some energon, rest, and a new coat of paint." Ratchet said without looking up from his work.

20 minutes later Ratchet announced "Done. Not my best job. I wish I had all of my tools and better parts, but you won't need that wheelchair anymore." I stood and walked for the first time in 48 hours. "It's a miracle! I can walk!" I smiled up at Ratchet.

"Ok, time to go. We apparently gotta get that energon stuff taken care of." Simmons said walking up to me. "Not so fast." said Ratchet. He grabbed me and lifted me up. It was sudden and unexpected but I was ok with it. I was happy about it actually. I ended up sitting on Ratchet's upturned palm. I climbed up his arm and onto his shoulder. Simmons watched me as I did so, but Ratchet was still looking straight at Simmons. I sat on Ratchet's shoulder and swung my legs. "Before you do anything about the energon levels in her blood talk to me. You don't know energon like I do. You might end up doing more harm than good. In fact I'd suggest doing nothing about it. She seems to be coping with it just fine." Ratchet said, ignoring the soldiers drawing their weapons on him. Simmons paused and finally said "Ok fine. We'll leave her blood be. But we're probably going to take a sample. And I'm gonna ask your buddies about energon. I want to know what it is." Simmons said. "It's our lifeblood. You want a sample? Here." At this Ratchet pulled out a transformer sized syringe. I flinched away from it. I'd had just about enough of needles. He calmly flipped open the armor on his forearm and pierced a tube, filling the syringe with pinkish-purple liquid. "Go crazy." He said setting the needle on the table. I whispered to Ratchet "Why'd you do that?" "To get them off our backs. He was probably gonna do it anyways. So I did it voluntarily. It's not that much. I'll live." He replied. He finished his statement with a small smile. He shut the armor again saying "There you are agent. Energon. It'll have some of my DNA in it but there it is.

I was taken away from Ratchet and sent to the doctor. I had to get used to walking again, but I was happy to abandon my wheelchair. The doctors took a blood sample (Great. Needles yet again.) and were shocked with the readings. They were also surprised I was alive. They stitched up behind my ear and I was sent to my room again. This time on the desk was plain notebook paper. I started to doodle. Eventually I got bored of that. I started to do origami that I'd memorized the instructions for, but I quickly got tired of that. I wished I had a book.

I wasn't tired but I laid on my cot and stared at the ceiling in thought. _Will I ever get out of here? What about school? What was today? Tuesday? Scrap. Oh yeah. Three day weekend. So I only missed today. So far. How am I gonna get out? What are my parents thinking? I mean, all the Autobots and me are gone. Will the Decepticons take advantage of this? Do they know we're captured?_ I kept right on thinking and eventually thought myself to sleep.


	46. Breaking Out

I was woken at 2am by the door being kicked in. Or actually, punched in. It was Bee. "How?-" I asked rubbing my eyes groggily. "We're getting out of here. They tried to open up Cliffjumper yesterday. They've also started to scan our weapons. They're never gonna let us go so we're running." he explained quickly. I grabbed my bloodstained clothes from the corner before I jumped up and ran to him. He picked me up. "How did you-?" "Smokescreen. While they were trying to breathe we scrammed. Luckily we still have our built in weapons. We gotta go get our blasters though. Wipe the scans too. Heaven knows what kind of weapons they'll make if we don't." I imagined people with plasma bullet holes in them. They'd look like swiss cheese. "I can only imagine."

Bee put me on his shoulder and ran to meet the others. Prowl was tapping into a computer in the room they were gathered in. They had to stoop to fit. "Our weapons are in the lab on the second floor." said Prowl as we walked in. "Quickly, bust through the doors and get your weapon. Leave the humans alone though." They didn't have to worry all that much. A few bullets would be mere dents to them. I wasn't so keen on this plan though.

We ran out. The Autobots were peppered with bullets but they paid no mind. Optimus had realized that I was the only one particularly vulnerable to the bullets so I was now in his hands. His enormous blue hands easily encased me. I felt safe behind the blue digits even though I could hear bullets against them. I couldn't see what was going on but suddenly Optimus' hands opened. He used one hand to grab his blaster. While everyone claimed their rightful weapons Prowl hacked into the computer under a forcefield from Trailbreaker. He wiped all the data from the scans on them and as soon as he was done Optimus led them out.

The humans abandoned their bullets and started to use bazookas. The Autobots were now being wounded as they ran. They dodged through crowds of humans, as if by magic squishing none, and made their way to the elevator in which they came. The base was underground and this was the only way they could get out. The elevator obviously didn't come so they shimmied up the shaft. They magnetized their limbs and climbed up no problem. They again ran and were out of the base. The Autobots dispersed into the city and hid in many a closed factory or foreclosed warehouse. Once the coast was finally clear the sped back to the Ark. I immediately used Teletraan 1 to call home.


	47. Laying Low

The Autobots were safe at the base finally. None dared to leave though. There were a few mysterious black cars prowling the city. (Gee, wonder who those belonged to.) To avoid Sector 7, they decided they had to blend more. Hound and Wheeljack installed hologram projectors so that everyone could have a holographic driver. Controls were also installed. Now all car Autobots had steering wheels and a gas and brake pedal. I could now drive them if I wanted. Or, pretend. The controls didn't really work. (But it'd be great for learning how to drive. The car would stop all by itself if needed!) They even added horns. That was the only control that actually did anything. Also Wheeljack built my family special belts. The buckle, when unbuckled, became 2 electro magnets. We'd put the belt over us and attach the magnets to the seats. Ta-da! Instant seat-belts.

The Decepticons took some downtime as well. They most likely knew about the Autobot's encounter with Sector 7 and kept quiet. They didn't want humans to know about them any more than the Autobots. Heaven knows how they found out though.

Ratchet easily patched up Bee. "You know, your lucky that hook didn't skewer something important." Ratchet had warned as he patched the hole. Bee's prescription was plenty of rest and energon. Bee also got a new coat of paint. "That was easy." said Bee to me jokingly.

Ratchet also took the time to fix my leg more properly. He got rid of the old grungy parts and put in new ones. That took the discomfort out of walking. He also had to talk to me about my encounter with the Decepticons. "Hailey, do you remember that game of Truth or Dare you played with the twins on your birthday?" Ratchet asked me while he was finishing up my leg. "Yeah. They made me eat energon. Why?" "I think that game may have saved your life." Ratchet shut the door to my hydraulic leg and took his tools over to his desk. As he started to clean and polish them I asked "What do you mean?" "In a vaccination they give you a weakened form of the ailment. Your body makes antibodies so you're ready for it next time. I think something similar happened with you and energon. The first time it was a small dose, diluted by your digestive system. So your body had an idea of how to handle it when it was injected directly into your blood steam. If it hadn't been for that small exposure, well... we wouldn't be talking right now." Ratchet set down the wrench he was currently polishing and turned to me. I sat there gawking. "By the way, I didn't bring this up at the Sector 7 compound but you might want to check a mirror." I hadn't looked in a mirror in a while. I hadn't left the base. My parents had driven here. Ratchet held a transformer sized mirror to me. I gazed into it and almost immediately noticed quite a big change. My eyes were piercing blue. "Well. That's new." I said, blinking my eyes to check if the ones in the mirror were mine after all. "Now you match us." Ratchet smiled. My eyes were a lighter shade than his but I got his point. I smiled up at him.

Wheeljack made me an earbud. He'd learned his lesson with surgery. He took this time to upgrade the headmasters as well. Now when Optimus and Jazz went into vehicle mode while we were occupying their heads, the heads would become exo-suits for us. Also the controls for the headmaster were altered. "Now you have full body control. You just didn't look natural." as Wheeljack had put it. There were little wires and sensors that went all over out bodies now. And yet they snapped in place around us just as quickly and neatly as before.

Two weeks of hiding later the Autobots finally decided to send someone to check if the holograms worked. Bee had bravely volunteered. I used my new seat-belt for the first time. "Magnets tickle." Bee said. A smile stole over my features. The doors of the Ark opened and Bee drove out. Bee activated his holographic driver. It was a blonde boy. He seemed to be about 18. He was in a yellow jacket. He was wearing a black T-shirt and jeans, along with gray converse. He had piercing blue eyes just like me. The boy looked at me and said "Here goes nothing." in Bee's voice. He turned forward again as we drove away from the safety of the Ark. He went into town and mixed with traffic smoothly. Bee was careful to adhere to all the rules of the road. (As part of blending, all car Autobots had studied traffic laws.) We were soon met with a Sector 7 black car. The car passed us by. He didn't turn or come back. The same happened with the other 3 Sector 7 cars we passed. It had worked. We returned to the Ark triumphant.


	48. The Trouble with Energon

One day, I was helping Wheeljack finally fix the solid instead of liquid energon problem. As we were finishing up I suddenly felt dizzy. I'd been fighting a splitting headache all day, but I hadn't thought much of it. I was holding a panel in place at that point. So I muscled through until Wheeljack had put in all the screws. (which by the way, were the size of my head) As soon as I could (without messing up Wheeljack) I leaned against the side of the machine. The outer shell that made the energon collector look like a rock had been removed and the bare machinery hurt my spine so I instead lay down on the tabletop.

The room spun as Wheeljack said "You ok?" "I'm fine." I replied weakly. "You sure don't sound fine." Wheeljack said, shaking his head. "I'm fine." I tried to sound stronger this time but I couldn't get my voice to not sound like something between whispering and regular speech. I stood and swayed. I ended up falling and Wheeljack caught me. "I'm taking you to Ratchet." he said. He swept my legs up onto his servo and used one finger on my midsection to push me down so I was laying on his hand. He brushed the hair out of my face and set off for the med bay with a worried expression.

He walked quickly down the halls but tried to keep his steps as smooth as possible. I wanted to sit up and tell him to not worry so much but my limbs decided to stop listening to me. And since I couldn't even move, apparently, I decided telling him to not worry might not be so effective, so I stayed quiet. Once we made it to the med bay Wheeljack walked in to see Ratchet at his desk, polishing his wrench he used as a projectile weapon.

"Hey Rach'. I need you to look at Hailey. She's not doing so well." Wheeljack displayed me, still on the palm of his warm gray servo. I looked up to him and smiled. "I feel like scrap." Ratchet half smiled back and said "I bet. You sure look like it." "Excuse me?" I smiled back at him. I didn't care If I felt like scap, I was still gonna be a good sport. Ratchet shook his head and said "'Jack, can you put her on the table? I'll grab a scanner." Wheeljack put his servo on the closest berth and gently picked me up by my middle and set me on the table. "I'd move myself, but my limbs seem to currently hate me." I said smiling. A smidge of the worry slid from Wheeljack's eyes. He would have been smiling if he had a mouth.

Ratchet was back at that point. "How do you feel?" Ratchet said as he passed the giant scanner over me. "Like Megatron is stepping directly on my forehead. And my limbs refuse to cooperate." I said. "You seem low on energy, by these readings." Ratchet said looking from the scanner to me. "Hm. I don't really feel hungry though. Hunger is my body's way of saying to eat, so it's not that." I said. I wanted to shrug my shoulders but I could only talk it seemed. Although, since I'd stopped attempting to move my voice sounded more normal.

"Looking at you it makes me think of when Sunstreaker's gone too long without ener-..." "Uh, Rach'? You trailed off there." Wheeljack said after we realized Ratchet wasn't going to continue. Ratchet had a weird look on his face that read "AH-HAH!" Question was, what was the ah-hah? "When the 'Cons-... And we haven't-... She's acting-..." "Ratchet... You're acting crazy. Don't go Red Alert on me here." I said from the berth.

I tried to lift my head to get a better view of the medic, but was fruitless. Wheeljack saw my look of defeat and my head twitch upwards so he gently nudged his fingers under my skull and lifted my top half into a sitting position leaning against his palm. I rolled my head clumsily to the side (Finally! something I could _move_!) and said "Thanks." looking up at him smiling. He nodded in return and I twisted my head forward with difficulty.

Ratchet was pacing the floor, oblivious to what we were doing. He put his fingers to the side of his head. "First Aid. I need an energon cube here. Stat." he said briskly over his com to the apprentice. I heard a "Yes sir!" crackle over the com. "I think I figured out the problem. The Decepticons injected you with energon, right? More than you should have been able to handle." "well... yeah..." "I think your body accepted it as part of your system. You may very well now need a bit of energon in you, otherwise you start to shut down, just like us." At that point First Aid walked in clutching a pink-ish-purple glowing cube.

Ratchet took the cube from First Aid and set it on his desk. He started to measure it and look back at the scans he'd taken of me. "What happened?" First Aid said finally looking away from his mentor to me. Wheeljack gave a very brief synopsis as Ratchet continued to measure and finally switched his red servo to a spinning saw blade and cut the cube into equal pieces. Once he'd cut he said "This outta do the trick." He handed me the cut energon. It turned out to be a cube that was 2 inches by 2 inches by 2 inches. I lifted my arm and took it, with a great deal of effort. I felt awkward with all of them staring at me but I ignored that and took a bite of the glowing substance.

"She's regaining her color!" Wheeljack said looking down at me, still leaning on his servo. "I hadn't realized I'd lost it. I said looking up at him. By the time I'd finished the cube I felt as good as new. I sat up from Wheeljack's hand and stood. "Good to know I'm not a cripple." I said smiling up at the three mechs in the room. "I'll have to make you an energon collector today." Wheeljack said looking down at me. "Let's go finish the one we working on, shall we?" I said looking straight back at him. He smiled and set his palm on the table. I climbed on myself and once he'd raised his arm I shimmied up onto his shoulder.

Once we'd said goodbye and left the smiling faces of Ratchet and First Aid in the med bay, Wheeljack said "I was afraid you wouldn't be able to do that anymore." He looked at me as I asked "Do what?" "Use us as jungle gyms." We both smiled and went back to the lab to finish what we'd started.


	49. Choices

I was in my room at the Ark. I heard heavy footfalls, so I peeped my eyes over my geometry book to see who it was. I saw blue feet and shins and white thighs. "Optimus! Just the mech I wanted to see!" I called. I leaped off my couch, happy to abandon my homework for a few minutes and ran up to meet him in the hall. He had stopped at the sound of his name. I ran up to him and scrambled onto his outstretched hand. I maneuvered up his arm and perched myself on his shoulder. I stood and held one of the spikes on his helm to steady myself.

He continued walking, looked at me and said "You needed something?" "Yeah, I was wondering what you were gonna do about those Sector 7 jerks." "Oh. I see. Don't like being in the dark huh? I can understand that." "So you got any ideas?" "We don't have that many options. The Decepticons won't stay quiet. You know that, so we can't just keep hiding. If we fight we might be detected again. And escape won't be so easy a second time." "So it's lose-lose." "Well, we do have another option..." "That being?" "Letting the world know of our presence." "What?"

Optimus flinched and his face contorted a bit. I had just screamed directly into his audio sensor. "Oops. Sorry. Just shocked me a bit there..." "Obviously." Optimus replied. His face smoothed over again. "Anyway, If everyone knew we were here, Sector 7 couldn't touch us. The population would know something was up if we suddenly disappeared. Besides, people will eventually piece things together. They won't believe the conspiracy theory thing one everyone starts telling the same story. If 1 person posts a video of us, like at the solar power plant, people shrug it off. If 10 people post videos, a few will start to wonder. But if 100 people all say the same thing..." "I get your point. People will figure things out." "So we need to figure a way to let the world know, without telling them too much." "So, you want them to know you're here, but not where the Ark is." "Exactly." "I think I can help with that."


	50. The Local News

So Optimus had agreed to my plan. I had felt really smart when he said yes. I was inside Optimus (in truck mode, naturally) and we were headed into town. "Sorry Optimus. I can't resist." I said. At this the holographic driver (Who by the by had brown hair. He wore a red jacket with a silver stripe across it horizontally, which was unzipped to reveal a black T-shirt. He was wearing worn out jeans and blue tennis shoes. He looked to be in his early 40s.) turned to me as I leaned over. I honked the horn. We weren't in town yet and seriously, who wouldn't want to honk that big truck horn? Optimus laughed at the look of absolute joy on my face resulting from the loud noise. His laugh made me laugh. So we just laughed for a good minute. The holographic driver had of course appeared to be the one sharing in my mirth.

I managed to collect myself before we reached town. I felt really cool riding in the huge truck. I was still feeling silly from the horn ordeal so I asked Optimus to roll down the window. Once he did I put my arm in the window frame and used my free hand to slip on some shades. This generated more chuckles from the red and blue truck. Or maybe the driver. I'm not entirely sure. Once the CNN station building was in sight Optimus rolled up the window. I took off the shades and replaced them in the pocket I'd taken them from. I didn't want to look crazy.

Once there Optimus stopped. I walked inside. I went up to the front desk and said "I have a story for you guys." I felt utterly stupid, although I was proud of myself for sounding confident despite that fact. "Oh really? How old are you, kid?" "15." "Right. Beat it." "Ok fine. You won't spare one reporter and one cameraman? Fine by me. That just means I'll go to another news station. _Fox_ perhaps?" I had said the last two words over my shoulder. As I was walking away there was silence behind me. "...What was your story?" The lady had called to me. I smiled and turned. I walked back up to the desk and said "I'd need a reporter and cameraman. Maybe you could send some not-too-important intern? I dunno. All I can say is that it wouldn't take that long and it's a pretty good story." She seemed to regret calling me back. "Hey, I can go to Fox. Just means a longer drive for my friend." I said. It was true. CNN had a small station in Octomotro. Fox was two cities over. I knew that CNN and Fox were always on the opposite side of things, so they wouldn't be too happy if my story actually was good and they had passed it up. _Especially_ to Fox. She seemed hesitant. "Oh fine. We need a story anyways. They're gonna shut down this station. Not a thing worth noting happens here since the controversial rocket lab shut down." She walked away. Oh yeah. I forgot that the only reason CNN moved here at all was for the lab. They were working on something... I don't even know the story. Shows how much I care. I remember this much; Octomotro has one of the highest water tables in America. But thanks to the rocket lab's chemical dumping, we couldn't use any said water. It was toxic. The lab was closed years ago. Fox hightailed it out of here ages ago. The biggest activity since then was when CNN got a little story about the prowling black cars. (Sector 7) I can see why they were going to shut down the station. Nothing really ever happened here. At least as far as anyone knew… _yet_.

At that point the lady reappeared. With her were a blonde woman who looked to be in her 20s in a smart black suit and heels and a fat man in a gray T-Shirt, old torn jeans, and beat up used-to-be-white Sketchers. He wore a red baseball cap and held a camera on his shoulder. The blonde held a microphone. "This is Nancy Winnabell. The reporter you asked for. This is Ted Bullmann. The cameraman you also asked for." The receptionist said, gesturing to the implied person in turn. "Hey guys. Come with me. We're going for a ride." I smiled and led them to Optimus who was patiently waiting in the parking lot, hologram still up. He smiled as we got in the truck. Nancy and Ted seemed confused at the choice of vehicle. They also seemed to not comprehend the metal interior. "Where's the seat belts?" asked Nancy. "Here ya go. They're magnets. Just stick the metal parts to the seat on either side of you." I said as I handed my mom and dad's borrowed belts. Nancy took my mom's black fabric one and Ted took my dad's leather one. I put my gray and black checkered one over me. Every time someone connected a magnet to the seat, I noticed that Optimus' hologram fidgeted slightly and he smiled a bit wider. After all, as Bee had said, magnets tickle.

As we headed off Nancy said "I'm Nancy Winnabell. This is my cameraman Ted Bullmann. Who are you?" looking at Optimus' hologram. "I'm uh..." Optimus stumbled. Uh oh. We hadn't thought of that! "Orion! He's uh, Orion Pax." I cut in. Optimus' hologram nodded. Nancy seemed to accept that so she nodded and looked out the window. There was an awkward silence. Over my com link earbud I heard Optimus' voice saying "Orion Pax?" "Well, as you very well know that was your name before you were Optimus Prime. It works. It's a bit of an odd human name but acceptable. People come up with tons of weird things. Anyways, it's the first thing to come to mind. We had to think fast right?" I whispered as quiet as possible. I hoped Optimus heard me. Apparently he did because he replied over the com "Yeah. Ok then."

"So uh... Where are we going?" Nancy said finally. "We're going to meet some friends of mine." Optimus said. Or rather, I guess Orion did. Nancy seemed confused. "Don't worry, you'll see soon enough." Orion said turning his attention forward again. I was impressed with how good Optimus was with his hologram. I wondered if the name would stick, and if we should make up names for the other holograms. _That'd be fun._ I thought with a smile.

We finally reached our destination. It was a large parking garage. It was only used for "the arena" as most of the residents in Octomotro called it. It was Octomotro's version of the Staples Center. There were no performances today, so it was closed. Pretty much abandoned actually. Optimus stopped at the toll booth. I stepped out and used my null ray on the yellow and black arm cutting off the entrance. I then lifted the arm without any resistance other than gravity. I then climbed back into the truck. Nancy and Ted were thoroughly confused now. I suppressed giggles as Optimus drove in. Awaiting us were about 40 cars.

Nancy and Ted were utterly lost now. I stepped out of the truck again and motioned for them to do the same. They stepped out, still uncertain. Without a word I went over to a yellow bug. I opened the door and drew out a boom box. I set it on the ground next to the bug, which was parked on the near end of the row. Nancy and Ted watched me as I again leaned into the yellow beetle and drew out this time, a big red microscope. I carried it with both arms and set it next to the boom box. "Please turn your attention to our wonderful chauffeur." I said gesturing to Orion, still in the truck of course. He did a joking salute with a smile and vanished. Nancy and Ted gaped. Nancy looked in the window of the truck and didn't see Orion.

"Please step back." I said. I gently pulled on Nancy's arm. She allowed me to lead her back. "Point the camera and watch the magic." I semi-quoted Wheelie as I looked to Ted. I gestured to the truck. Ted raised an eyebrow, but listened. Once I saw the red blinking light that signaled recording I looked to Optimus. Then he transformed. He was purposely slow, drawing everything out for effect. I watched and examined the process more carefully. It was always cool when I got to see someone transform, but this was totally new. I saw as arms popped out from the side of the semi and plates adjusted to from familiar limbs. I saw blue fingers poke out from his red wrists closely followed by palms. I saw a head appear in the space between the newly formed shoulders and adjust shape. I looked up at the sapphire eyes on the new head as they locked onto the camera lens.


	51. Interview

Ted almost dropped the camera. I caught it before he did and said. "Watch _this_." I gestured to the line of cars. The camera was still going so I started at the far end and swept the lens down the line as the cars all simultaneously transformed. I handed the camera back to Ted, making sure to stay away from the front of the lens. I didn't want people to know I hung out with the Autobots. At least, not just yet.

Nancy finally collected herself enough to ask for an interview. Ted set up his little tripod and recorded while Nancy made a makeshift chair out of a wooden crate. I sat behind Ted on another crate, Ted basically did nothing. He just sat on his crate and completely ignored the camera. His eyes were all for Optimus and the others. Here's what I remember from the interview.

"Who are you?"

"I am Optimus Prime. We are Autobots."

"Autobots. Can you elaborate?"

"We are sentient beings from the planet Cybertron."

"What is Cybertron?"

"Cybertron is our home planet. It is mostly lifeless, ravaged by centuries of civil war."

"Civil war?"

"Yes. We are at war with the Decepticons."

"Who or what are Decepticons?"

"Decepticons are transforming robots just like us. Unlike us, they usually turn into planes. We are mostly cars. With a few exceptions as you saw." (Here he gestured to Blaster and Perceptor)

"Why have you been at war for so long? And How long?"

"We have been at war for 9 million years. We fight over control of Cybertron, but that's just the start. If the Decepticons _did_ beat us, they'd never stop with Cybertron. They'd conquer the whole universe."

"What would happen if they did conquer the universe?"

"They'd enslave all sentient life. Megatron, the leader of the Decepticons, sees all other life inferior to himself."

"How do you feel about the human race?"

"Humans are life. We live to protect life. You are also sentient beings, and freedom is the right of all sentient beings."

"Why are you here?"

"We crashed on Earth looking for energon."

"Energon?"

"Our lifeblood."

"How do we know you're telling the truth?"

"You rode in my vehicular mode all the way here didn't you? And to the citizens of Octomotro, you will be able to see us driving around town on occasion. So if you happen to see a driverless car, don't worry."

"How do we know the difference between Autobots and Decepticons?"

"Look for this logo." (he gestures to Hound who makes a hologram of an Autobot logo) "If the car has that logo, it's an Autobot. If it has this logo," (Hound makes a Decepticon logo) "It's a Decepticon."

"What should we do if we see a Decepticon?"

"Act like you didn't notice and get away from the area."

The interview went on for about half an hour. Nancy questioned just about everyone. When we were finally done Optimus gave Nancy and Ted a ride back to the station. We had quite the entourage.

Next morning my family watched the interviews on the morning news. Word quickly spread. I saw a few people out on the road looking into cars for drivers. Bee and Cliffjumper had come to pick me up that day, and when they saw no one in Cliffjumper's cab they squealed and pointed. They were probably a group of fangirls.


	52. Arguments

Dad and I had gotten into an argument again. It was over something stupid, as usual. But me and dad were both hardheaded and hated to be wrong, so that wasn't a good combination.

We'd been arguing over the state of my room. It was messy so he'd made me clean it instead of finishing what I was doing at the time. He wouldn't even let me save, he pulled the plug out if my laptop before I got the chance.

So I'd cleaned, fuming the whole time. I was mad so I threw all my little sister's junk on her nest if a bed. I then quickly finished cleaning, as Taylor had the majority if the mess.

I grabbed my iPod and stormed downstairs. I walked past the kitchen and my mom was standing inside. She turned away from the pasta she was boiling and as she stirred the marinara sauce she looked over her shoulder to me and said "Where you going?" "For a walk." I replied bitterly without stopping. "Don't go far!" she called as I opened the door. "Yeah, yeah." I said over my shoulder. Then I left.

I was headed for "my spot". It was a tree in the park. We had a big park that was basically a big green field with trees surrounding it and a playground in a corner. Oh, and a jogging trail bordering it. I went to the park (it took about 2 minutes, even as slow as I was walking.) and once there I climbed up the branches and lay back against the curved bough I considered mine.

I popped my earbuds into my ears and let the music take over my mind. I admired the beautiful pinks and oranges and golds of the early sunset. Owl City calmed me down so I could think over what had pissed me off in the first place. _Why does he have to be such a __**aft**__? He could've at least let me save! And it was Taylor's mess anyways. But __**she**__ couldn't stay focused to save her fragging __**life**__. The fragger had the attention span of a __**gnat**__._ I fumed internally.

Suddenly a dark feeling came over me that squelched my flames. For now at least. I took my earbuds out, wrapped them around my faithful iPod Touch and shoved the bundle into my jacket pocket.

I looked around and I saw something to make my heart freeze: Starscream. I stayed as still as humanly possible and waited. When he flew over my tree I thought he hadn't spotted me through the cover of leaves. I let out the puff of air I hadn't been aware I was holding. But then he turned and started to swoop low.

I reached for my necklace instinctually, and it wasn't there. I realized that my weapon was sitting on my desk at home. _Of all days to not wear it!_ I thought of my com link but panicked. So I did what anybody would in this situation; I decided to run.

I jumped off my branch, and landed with a thud. I hurt my ankles a bit but I was ok. I jammed my earbud in my ear canal as deep as it would go and sprinted for the cover of the taller trees.

I made it and ducked into the bushes. I stayed and held my breath hoping the jet would just leave. Starscream touched down in robot mode. I ducked deeper into my bush and I turned on my com link. I held the button which meant I was talking over the com, but since Starscream was so near, I just had the com link open so the Autobots would here Starscream muttering in Cybertronian. I hoped they'd piece it together.

At this point I could hold my breath no longer, so I breathed almost silently. Apparently Starscream had turned up his audio sensors' sensitivity because I have a feeling that's what gave me away.

I tried to make a break for it, letting go of the com button. But before I was even all the way out of the shrub Starscream caught me. Without a word he took me out to the open and threw me in the air. He caught me in his cockpit as he transformed and he flew away.


	53. Hello Again, Annihilation

As soon as Starscream took off he said "Stasis. Now." And I heard a _pshht_ come from behind me. Next thing I knew I felt like I was made of lead. Everything was so _heavy_, including my eyelids. And then I was asleep.

* * *

When I woke up everything was hazy. I opened my eyes and everything was too bright. I had to try a few times to finally get it so that my eyes didn't burn from the light. When I finally did, a blurry vision of blue was wrapped around me. It felt like metal. _Optimus?... No..._ Then I remembered where I was. When I finally was mostly awake, I saw that Starscream was setting me in and iron cage. He kicked the cage under his berth, hidden from view. But I was still so _tired_. So I curled up on the cold metal floor and slept.

* * *

I finally awoke again. I sat up groggily and was glad for the shadows. The dark didn't burn my eyes. I heard no noise so I called "Hello?" No answer. Suddenly directly above me was whirring and scraping. I flinched then realized, Starscream was asleep directly above me. I stayed huddled waiting for what was to come next. What was that exactly? I didn't know. That was the worst part. _But why didn't he take me to Megatron?... _I wondered. I abandoned that thought, because that's when the fear started to sink in.

The 'Cons didn't care If I died or not. Actually, they'd probably like that very much if I did. I started to think of the Autobots. Then I thought of something. I'd known this all along, but I'd never stopped to think about it like I was now.

The Autobots could kill me just as easily as any Decepticon could. I walked about on the floor, all it would take is just one ped to come down on top of me. But then I remembered back on the day we'd discovered about my need for energon. Wheeljack, Ratchet and First Aid. They actually cared for my safety. They cared if I felt ok. All the Autobots did. They'd done so much to protect me and my family. These creatures, they risked their lives to protect us, the weaker and more vulnerable. What did we humans do in return? Sector 7 kidnapped them and treated them like a frog to be dissected in science class. Even back there at Sector 7 the Autobots could've easily overpowered the humans and killed them all. But even though Sector 7 started to torture the Autobots, they didn't harm a single human. Optimus had even saved one. I longed to be back with them. My feelings for them had changed over the course of time. We were now more than best friends. We were an interplanetary family, made of humans and robots...

This was no time to get mushy. I yanked my head back to the problem at hand. _What time is it anyways?_ I thought. I made sure there was no movement from above, then I pulled out my iPod. I didn't want Starscream to take it. I felt like it connected me to the outside world. And if he did take it, he'd most likely crush it. And if he didn't, he'd see all the Transformers videos I'd favorited on YouTube. (I found it pretty stupid that almost all the information I knew about transformers could be easily found on the internet. Thank Primus the 'Cons didn't know of the internet's existence. Or TV's for that matter.)

I turned on the iPod screen and the little clock read 3:47am. I then powered down my iPod and shoved it into my jeans pocket, then covered it with the end of my shirt and jacket. I zipped up my blue jacket over my shirt. I looked down at my black skinny jean clad legs and thought of ways to escape. It was all I could do until Starscream finally woke up.

I couldn't think of anything. If I got an Idea, I found something to stop that plan of action. The biggest problem was being unarmed. If I had my weapons, escape would be simple. I kicked myself yet again for forgetting my necklace. I _never_ took that thing off. I even _slept_ in it, I was so paranoid about it. But the lull had been so long I started to slack off. The only times I ever took it off were when I was showering. I'd taken a shower earlier today, (or actually since it was 3 in the morning, I guess that'd make it yesterday...) and forgotten to put it back on afterwards. How _stupid_! Well, since I had nothing better to do, I just went back to sleep yet again.

* * *

I was jolted awake by sounds from above. I heard whirring, clicking, scraping and a groan. Starscream let air out of his vents loudly. It sounded a lot like a sigh. I stayed quiet as more scraping was heard and two peds touched the floor in my line of vision. I heard him mutter "How can it be six already?" under his breath and trail off into Cybertronian.

"Uh, hello?" I called uncertainly. "Oh yes. I forgot you were here." I heard Starscream's reply from above. There was a delay and his peds (the only part of him I could currently see) twitched. I'd startled him. "Oh, you forgot? Forgot that you _kidnapped_ me yesterday?" "Well I just got out of stasis." Starscream said dismissively as his blue peds moved closer to the berth. Then I saw his arm come under the berth and feel for the cage. "Over here." I called, still annoyed. His hand followed the direction of my voice and came down on top of the cage. I sat up and crossed my legs as the cage slid over the floor. I tried to not seem scared as I saw Starscream on the floor near the side of the berth.

He was lying on his front side and once he had the cage out from under the low (to his point of view anyway) berth he wrapped his fingers around the top of the cage. He pushed himself up with one servo and got his stabilizing servos underneath him. With that accomplished, he stood and dusted himself off with his free hand. He flipped the cage around in his fingers so it ended up sitting on his palm. "Not so nice to see you again, Screamer." I said to his face, now level with mine. He glared at me and said "No one is to call me that. _Especially_ not a little _fleshling_, such as yourself." "Then how come Thundercracker and Skywarp do? Or should I say, Thunder and Warp?" I remembered Taylor telling me about the jets' nicknames for each other after we'd saved her. If looks could kill, I would have dropped dead then and there.

"Do not test me." His eyes narrowed even thinner than before so they were just strips of glowing red. "By the way, while we're on the subject of names, I'm not _fleshling_. I'm _Hailey_, thank you very much." I crossed my arms and stood as I said this. "Whatever." he said, rolling his optics.

"Starscream!" I knew immediately by the voice and tone that it was Megatron, and he wasn't too happy with Starscream. Starscream snatched a data pad from his desk and dropped it and the cage at the same time. The data pad and I hit the ground hard. I ended up falling painfully on my butt. The data pad on the other hand, didn't even have a scratch on its glowing blue touch screen. He kicked the cage back under the berth as he stooped down to pick up his data pad. I don't know he did all that under 4 seconds, but he did.

When Megatron walked in, he saw Starscream stooped over the pad. "What are you _doing_?" Megatron said in a tone clearly saying "you look like an idiot." "I- uh... dropped my data pad. That's what made the clang." Starscream muttered uncertainly. "Klutzy fool." Megatron said massaging the bridge of his nasal plating. He obviously was embarrassed with his "army of idiots" as I can imagine Megatron calling them.

I had stayed silent during all this because I _really_ didn't want to face Megatron again. I could watch the conversation if I lay down on my stomach and put my face up against the bars of my cell. "I didn't come here to tell you you are an idiot. I came here to tell you that just because you're confined to quarters doesn't mean you're excused from your duties. You have patrol again today. You should have taken off 13 minutes ago!"

As Megatron was biting Starscream's head off, I noticed Starscream had a digital clock in his quarters. It was displaying 6:18 in green lights. It was obviously human made, because it had Earth numbers as opposed to Cybertronian ones. They probably all had one, stolen of course, since Earth time is different than Cybertronian. Where we counted hours, they had Megacycles, seconds were nanocliks. The units were similar, but not the same.

Back to the chewing out of my jet captor. Starscream leaned back from Megatron, and Megatron in turn leaned forward. Starscream eventually had to lean back so far, he fell on his aft. "I'll be in the skies before you know it." Starscream whined from the floor. "You'd better be." came Megatron's threat of a reply. I heard the swoosh of the door shutting then Starscream loudly cycled air through his vents; basically a deep breath.

He reached under the bed without re-situating his body. He slid his arm behind him and groped for the cage. "Here." I said. He again homed in on my voice and took the cage out from against the dusty wall.

"Say nothing or die." Starscream said as he pulled out a key. He displayed the key and said "No funny business." I moved my fingers over my lips as if zipping my mouth shut. I then put an imaginary key and locked an imaginary lock. I threw the invisible key over my shoulder and folded my arms behind my back. He set the cage on his berth and unlocked it. I unfolded my arms and stepped out. He put his servo on the berth palm up. I climbed on quickly as he set the cage on the floor shoved it out of sight quietly with his ped. His fingers curled around me and I made no effort to even move as he opened his orange cockpit. He stuffed me inside and I settled silently as he shut it again. Thanks to the tinting I could see out, but no one could see in. I watched the orange dyed world go by as Starscream walked out of his quarters, through the base, past the command room, and out the wide front doors. He transformed and flew away.


	54. An Interesting Development

Once we were in the skies and away from the frigid confines of the Annihilation I unzipped my jacket and said "So, back there with Megatron. What was that all about?" "I'm on bad terms with Megatron." "Really? Try to take over?" "No. I just said that I'd make a better leader. Megatron got pissed. Probably a bad time to voice my opinion. He was already in a bad mood. Why am I even telling you this?" "What harm could come from it? ...Why did you shove me back under the bed?" "Megatron doesn't exactly know we have a guest..." "I see. But if you're confined to quarters like he said, why are we out here now?" "I get double shifts. And I get them twice a day. So I'm flying 4 times as much as I'm used to. Makes me dog tired, that's why I was late this morning. Megatron is driving me to exhaustion. At least I don't have monitor duty. That'd 'give me a chance for interaction' so says Megatron. And he's right. So I'm all alone, all the time. Well, until now anyways." "Yeah, I'm the unwilling company. But what about energon? Don't you die without it? You'd have to to to the galley to get that right?" "We're on scant rations as it is. But someone delivers energon to me once every day. When I finish my second patrol. Speaking of which, what am I gonna do about you?..." "What?" "Well, don't you need... uhh... what's it called? Oh. Food, right?" "That took a while. But yes. I do. And water. I die without that too. Oh... and uh... there's another thing..." "How high maintenance _are_ you?" "Well _excuse_ me. I don't exactly have a choice in it. And _you're_ the one who kidnapped me." "Yeah yeah. What else did you need?" "Thanks to my last visit here, I actually need energon as well." "Seriously?" "Unfortunately." "That's gonna be a problem." "Well, I don't need _nearly_ as much as you guys do. I usually get an itty bitty cube that's like 2 inches in height, width, and length." "Oh, that's all? That's easy." "Yup." "How often do you need this stuff?" "Once a day, I'd say as a minimum."

I knew I'd go hungry, but I didn't want to push it. I'd get enough energon alright, but food and water were gonna be hard. I was used to 3 meals a day, but I'd survive. I asked Starscream how he planned on getting food and water, and he said "Pfft. I just punch in the roof of some random drug store after closing time. Simple as that." "Oh. Of course."

It got quiet after that. But that gave me time to mull over what the jet had said. _So he's confined to quarters... He came and picked me up while on one of his extra long patrols... Megatron doesn't know about me... So what's he gonna do with me?... Guess the only way to find out is ask... _"So, Uh... Starscream?" "What?" "What're you gonna do with me? You sure act like I'm gonna be here for a while..." "I'm keeping you just to spite Megatron. He's been avid about capturing you and your family for quite some time. So, I've taken you just to aggravate him. It's revenge basically. I'm going to keep you an eventually get the information you have about us." "Wait, so I'm like a _pet?"_ "Yeah, I guess." "Oh. Wonderful." I sunk lower in the seat and waited for our long flight to be over.

Unknown to me Starscream had another reason for taking me. He was lonely. He would admit it to no one, not even himself, but he missed having Taylor around, even if her kindness was semi-false. That was a very minor reason, but a legitimate reason nonetheless. Although I would be on a short leash, and at the first sign of me being crafty he'd turn on me. He would never let another organic squirm into his spark again. I wasn't in the slightest aware of what a thin line I walked on.


	55. Welcome to Pethood

So apparently I was now a pet to the 2 story Decepticon second in command. "Well. This is just peachy." I muttered to myself. "Hey! I'm bored." I called to Starscream. "Tough luck. I'm doing paperwork." He replied. I was stuck in my cage, back under the berth. "The least you could do is get me out from under the bed!" I called again. "Shut up! You're gonna attract attention!" "Then get me outta here!" He cycled air through his vents, a sigh.

He stood and walked to the berth. He grabbed the cage, unlocked it and turned it upside down on his desk. I tumbled out, hitting my head on the hard metal. "Oww! Fraggit!" I yelled in pain. "Tsk, tsk. Language." Starscream mocked. In glared up at him as he put the cage on top of his berth. "Happy? You're out. And don't even try the door. _I_ can't even unlock it. It only opens from the outside, with a code." He said as he looked away from me and back at his data pad. He was doing reports for his patrol. "You think I'm stupid enough to sprint through an entire base of Decepticons?" I asked, eyebrow raised. "You did it once." "That was lucky. It'd never work a second time." "Smart little human huh?" "I'd like to think so. If I wasn't smart, I'd be long since dead." "True."

The day was pretty boring until we had to do patrol again, or rather Starscream did patrol and I sat in the cockpit. Starscream took off at 10:00 on the nose. In the dark of the night I saw the lights twinkling mockingly at me. I wanted to go back and walk among those glittering lights. But instead Starscream flew at breakneck pace. "What's the rush? We're out here until midnight aren't we?" I asked as the world streaked by. "Yes, but we've got a few stops to make."

He flew around until he found a semi-secluded area. He transformed near a shop with unlit windows. It was closed. I ended up in Starscream's hand. He set me down and said. "I'll be watching. Go grab a collar." "Collar? Uh.. ok... How do you propose I get in?" "Through the door of course." He said as he extended his index finger. I little needle poked out from the end. He inserted the thin needle and picked the lock within seconds. He gestured to the door. "Why are you making me steal a collar?" I asked, hesitating. "For you, of course." "Perfect."

I walked into the shop and went to the small aisle under the hanging sign that read "Dogs: Food, brushes, and collars". I perused the shelves. I felt the insides of the collars, that's what I cared about. I went down the aisle looking for the collar that would hurt my neck the least. I ended up with a soft pink leather one. Not my choice of appearance, but this is what I needed. I felt bad, it was one of the most expensive collars there. But I think $30 for a dog collar is _way_ overpriced.

I walked out of the shop, collar in hand. "Took you long enough." Starscream said in an annoyed tone. "I was in there 5 minutes!" "Whatever, give me it." I handed him the collar and he easily tore it from its packaging. He handed me the miraculously undamaged collar and tossed the trash over his shoulder. I got annoyed at the littering but said "So, I just put this on now?" "Duh." I undid the collar and put it around my neck. I felt so _stupid_. "You pull it off." Starscream mocked as I tightened the collar. I made it so that the collar was around my neck like a choker, but I could still get my finger in between the leather and my skin. "Shut up." I growled back.

He picked me up and said "Ok, now for a leash." "And the humiliation doesn't end." He laughed as I was again thrown into the air. I landed with a thud on the metal seat. "I'm gonna be covered in bruises if this keeps up." I told the jet. He ignored my comment and flew through the night.

We ended up at Home Depot. "Go inside and get a long chain." "Mkay fine." I said as I walked through the doors Starscream had opened. I went to the back aisle of the giant store. _Starscream could probably actually fit in here if the door was bigger._ I thought. I considered escape, but all the doors were locked except the one Starscream opened. So I went and got a whole reel of chain. It said it was 50 feet of chain. I assumed and hoped that'd be enough.

I walked back out to Starscream and said. "Here's 50 feet." I handed him the reel. He found the end of the chain and attached it to my collar, which I'd removed for a moment. He pried open the end link in the chain, put it in through the metal loop a leash was meant to go through, and closed it again with his fingers. He handed me back the collar and I put it on once more. He set the reel on the ground so that it sat like a car tire. He gave it a shove and it sped down the parking lot and rolled away, leaving behind the unrolled chain. Starscream picked up the other end of the chain. Bundling it in his hand he said "It's already 11. We need to get you food and water, then actually fly around a bit so I have stuff to put in my report, and get back before midnight." He shoved me and my leash into his cockpit and transformed. Next stop was 7 Eleven.

"Get only the food you plan on consuming tonight." He again unlocked the door and this time, he held the end of the leash so I had to be careful not to tangle it. I eventually walked out with a snack size bag of Doritos, a bottle of pink lemonade, and a king size 3 Musketeer bar. I also carried out a single paper cup from the employee lounge, for the energon.

As we flew above Octomotro I said "Wow. Your cockpit is just getting fuller and fuller, isn't it?" "Just a bit." We laughed for a few seconds. _I can't believe I'm making jokes with a '__**Con**__!_ I thought to myself, smiling. The Autobots would save me and maybe my stay wouldn't even be that bad.

Once back at the base Starscream walked directly to his room, trying to walk smoothly but not look weird. He didn't want the chain to clank. When we were back in his room I went back into the cage. He took off the chain and shoved in under the berth, alongside me. "What? Why?" I said as I was slid into the shadows. "Somebody will be here soon, remember?" "Right. Fine."

10 minutes later Skywarp walked in and set a cube on the table next to the door without a word. After he was gone and Starscream took me out I asked "He's your friend, why'd he give you the silent treatment?" "Megatron lets no one speak a word to me. That is, until he finally decides to lift the punishment." Starscream shrugged.

"Where was that cup?" he asked. "Under the bed." I said pointing. "I'll get the stuff." Starscream set me down and I ran under the bed. I picked up the food, drink, and cup from beside the chain and walked back out to the Decepticon. He set me on the berth next to him. I set the cup down and while he tipped the pink liquid into it I undid the lid to my lemonade.

"Now, I only do this because if I don't you'll die. And this is a privilege. Not a right. Good behavior means food and energon. Bad behavior, not so much." Starscream lectured. "Jeez, I feel like I'm in prison." I said looking up to my captor. He smiled and took a sip of his energon. I downed mine and moved onto the chips. We chatted as dinner went on and once we were both done I asked "What do I do with this?" I gestured to my wrappers and other trash. "Put it under the berth. We'll get rid of it next patrol." "Do you have patrol the same time every day?" "Unfortunately, yes. It's part of the punishment." "If you're so tired, why don't you just sleep after you finish your reports?" "I _could_..." "It's not like you have anything better to do." "True." "Can I get a lift down? It's kinda high." "Hm? Oh. Yeah."

He put his servo down, palm up. I already had the trash gathered, so I climbed on and I was set on the ground. I walked under the berth and set the trash beside the chain leash. I hated that stupid thing. I understood why he chose chain; so I couldn't cut it. I glared at the chain that caused me such humiliation and remembered my collar. I touched the supple leather and thought _I swear, If he gets me a dog tag, I'm gonna-_ I was cut off mid-thought by Starscream calling "What're you doing down there?" "Nothing." "Just get out here."

I walked back into the light and Starscream picked me up. He set me on the berth and said "Collar." He put out his hand. I dumped the humiliating accessory into his hand and he closed his fingers around it. He fiddled with it for a minute or two, at one point he even switched his hand to a blow torch mode. He handed me the collar again. I put it around my neck. Then he began to fiddle with it again, while it was on me. I felt vulnerable and I felt the urge to pull away ever time one of his fingers brushed against the soft skin of my neck. I fought the urge and he pulled away after about a minute of fixing. I felt the collar and noticed a pretty big change. The plastic buckle was, for lack of a better word, welded shut. I couldn't take off the infernal accessory. "Yes, you can't take it off anymore." Starscream said after seeing my eyes bulge for a moment.

Soon, we decided to go to sleep. He handed me a rag, it was a bit greasy. I guessed that it was the same one he'd given Taylor when he had her. I was back in my cage under the berth. I curled up under my blanket and thought. _What Bee said about 'Cons being cold is w__rong. I guess they'd be cold to him but They're definitely warmer than this cage._ Even though I was cold, exhaustion won out, and I was quickly sound asleep.


	56. Through Ruby Optics

At this point, I thought I had Starscream in the palm of my hand. I'd never thought it would be that easy. But that's because it wasn't.

Starscream

Capture the girl: Done.

Fool Megatron: Easy.

Trick the girl: Even simpler than expected.

She'd been an easy target, all alone in the park. No witnesses, no worry. Megatron was still in the dark about her. The fleshling thinks I'm putty in her hands. The little truth I did tell her made her feel like she was in control. I'd put a little fantasy in her head that probably went something like "He likes me, and _mostly_ trusts me." I showed just enough doubt to hinder escape. I always had one optic on her, I'd even put a surveillance camera under my berth. Now all I need is to get her to lower her guard so she'll finally spill the beans.

Once she does, I can use the fact that I _singlehandedly_ did what Megatron couldn't with an _entire army_ on multiple occasions to prove that I should be the new supreme leader of all Decepticons!

Then I'll squish her like the bug she is so Megatron can't get the information unless he bows down to _me_.


	57. Confused Autobots

While all this is going on here's what happened at the Ark.

Bumblebee

I was in the rec room when we heard it. It was over all coms, as it was the emergency frequency. I heard a lot of static and faintly in the background was another noise. The base went silent as everyone tried to hear what it was. But then it was gone. Everyone resumed daily life, like it had been a fluke. I talked to Perceptor about it later that day at dinner.

"So. What do you think that was earlier? On the emergency frequency?"

I asked the microscope. "I don't know, no one knows what to make of it, so people are just ignoring it. I know it concerns Optimus." I took a sip of my energon. I looked down at the cube and thought _Wheeljack finally fixed it. With Hailey's help. Hailey's got school today. Wait... She's got today off school..._ "Uh, gotta go." I hastily said to Perceptor. I left the room in such a hurry I forgot my energon cube. I hoped the dark thought that crossed my CPU was wrong...

* * *

I went to Optimus' quarters and knocked. A "Come in." came from within. I wasted no time to oblige. Now within the room I told Optimus what was troubling me. "Optimus, Hailey's off school, and we haven't seen her at all. I think she may have everything to do with the static." Optimus was silent for a moment. "I knew that it wasn't a fluke." He said mostly to himself. He put his fingers to the side of his head and called Blaster over the com. The communications specialist was in the room in moments. "What up Prime?" he asked. "I need you to find out what the noise in the background of the static was. Teletraan 1 automatically records messages on the emergency frequency, so you can analyze that recording." "You bet, no sweat." Blaster nodded and left the room.

* * *

Optimus

At about 11 o clock I walked through the command room after locking up once the final patrol came in. I noticed Blaster was still sitting in front of Teletraan fiddling with the recording. I came up behind him and set my hand on his shoulder. He jumped. He'd been so absorbed he hadn't heard me approach. "Get some rest. You look tired. It'll still be here in the morning." He looked up at me with dim optics and nodded.

He stood and walked down the hall to his quarters. I heard the swoosh of the door in the nearly silent ship. The only noise was the distantly quiet sound of cleaning solvent from the wash racks. Cliffjumper was washing from patrol. I set the security system and powered down Teletraan's screen. I turned off all the lights in the Ark except the ones down the hallway Cliffjumper would be using. I set them to turn off in an hour. That would give Cliffjumper plenty of time.

I walked back to my quarters. Once inside I put my arms over my head and stretched. I let out a quiet sound similar to a human yawn. I then smiled behind my faceplate and thought _This planet must be rubbing off on me_. I lay on my berth and soon drifted into stasis.

* * *

The next morning Blaster commed me. "Yo, Prime. I got a fix on the undecipherable noise." "Be right there." I replied as I started the trek to the command room.

I walked up to Blaster and he smiled up at me. He was obviously proud of himself. "What did you find?" I asked. He played the recording. It was Starscream, speaking in Cybertronian. "I didn't understand why it was Screamer, so I traced the source. It was Hailey's com." Blaster explained.

"Prime!" Blaster and I turned to see Bumblebee. "Prime look at this." Bumblebee politely took the controls to Teletraan 1 and pulled up and online news video from the CNN website. It was about mysterious robberies. Picked locks and from 3 separate stores. A pink leather collar from Petsmart, a whole reel of chain from Home Depot, and a couple snacks from 7 Eleven.

Then, amid the confusion I got commed again. "Hey Prime, where's Hailey? She's not answering her com, or phone. And her necklace is on her desk." Hailey's dad's voice came over the com. "I'm sorry Robert, but Hailey isn't at the Ark." I replied. "What? But she's not here! Oh no..." It all made sense, well most of it. _Why would the Decepticons steal that stuff? The food is probably for Hailey, but what about the collar and chain? Can't worry too much about that. We've got a rescue to plan._


	58. A Close Call

I woke up to the almost familiar scraping and groaning. Whirring and clicking sounded from above as Starscream stood. I lay flat up against the bars. I was on my back so I saw Starscream upside-down. He put his arms over his head and stretched. He put his arms down quickly and muttered to himself. I didn't catch much but I heard "...stupid..." Then he reverted to Cybertronian.

He lay down and stuck his arm under the berth. He grabbed the cage and dragged it out. He turned it over so I slid into his palm. I climbed up his arm and sat on his shoulder and smiled at him. He pushed the cage back under the berth. I'd been here a week at this point. So now that the routine was done I looked at the clock. That's what scared me. It read 6:09. We were in trouble. Starscream and I jumped as we heard heavy footfalls from outside. Starscream had slept in.

It didn't seem fair to be punished so harshly (as I knew Megatron would) for a mere 4 minutes, but _nothing_ about Megatron is fair.

I knew Starscream didn't have time to get me hidden. I panicked. I noticed the attachment on Starscream's shoulder to my left. I darted for it and jumped down it. It was hollow and I slid down. I caught myself as the door swooshed open. I stayed silent and still.

"You're **late**!" Megatron yelled. He punched Starscream's face, causing him to stagger backward. I slid down. The small passage widened. I now had to use my arms and legs, whereas before I leaned against one side of the passage and pushed against the other with my legs to keep me suspended. I was now about 2 feet lower than I was before, and before I had been about a yard from the opening. I heard a low whirr below me and a fan was quickly spinning. _Megatron better hurry this up. I can't hold this too long!_ I thought frantically.

I'm pretty strong in the leg area, I guess. But when I came to my upper body, I had noodles for arms. I would've crawled up the passage, but I was afraid of slipping or worse, making noise.

"This is not the first time you've slacked off." Megatron said dangerously. "It won't become a habit, I swear my lord!" Starscream pleaded, obviously feeling how close I was getting to his ventilation system. If I fell it wouldn't be good for either of us. I of course would be getting the worse end, but my blood would clog up Starscream's vents, and he'd be punished mercilessly.

"It had better not." Megatron said. There was a pause. I assumed that Megatron was turning and walking away. Then from nowhere he punched Starscream in the cockpit. Starscream fell. I slid a good 5 feet, catching myself mere inches from the rapidly spinning fan. I chanced scooting up a bit, to keep the end of my jacket from getting shredded and making noise. Then I heard the distant swoosh of the door.

The second Megatron was gone I scooted up. I tried to climb out, but kept slipping. Then Starscream thrust a cleaning rod down the vent. "Grab this!" He said. I grabbed the rod, putting two fingers in the eyelet meant for the cleaning rag. He yanked me out swiftly.

Once out he dropped me on his palm. I fell limp from exhaustion. "Remind me, _never_ to do that again." I said between deep breaths. He smiled and said "That was good thinking." "Thanks, Screamer." Starscream seemed annoyed at my use of the nickname but quickly let it go and smiled.

I had blackened clothes and skin. He picked me up and grabbed my chain on the way out. He shoved the chain and I into his cockpit. He left the base soon after that. "Ooh. He got you good. You've got a crack." I said as I traced the wound. "I'll live." Starscream replied. I could imagine the smirk I was sure he'd have if he wasn't currently a plane.


	59. Shower Time

I sat next to Starscream, who was doing reports from the morning patrol. I was dozing against his left servo, which held the data pad while the right tapped at the screen. I snapped awake when Starscream had moved his servo ever so slightly. He looked apologetic for waking me. I waved off his expression and lay back against his forearm.

I scratched at one of the grimy spots on my hand. It itched and burned. I licked one of my clean fingers on my right hand and rubbed away the black on my left hand. My saliva burned even worse and when the black grime was gone I saw the skin underneath was red and bumpy. "Eww." I said looking at the mutated skin. "I agree." Starscream said seeing the spot. "You got any water around here?" I asked. "No. Robots, remember?" "Right."

after a minute I remembered my bottle of water. I'd learned that it was a good idea to have one at hand. I used Starscream as a ladder and climbed to the floor. I ran under his berth and picked up the bottle. I washed off the black on my skin over the drain in the center of Starscream's room (a flood precaution). To get my face I had Starscream tell me where the black spots were. (I had only one, on my left cheek) I used my "blanket" to wipe away the small amount of water that didn't disappear down the drain (to remove evidence). My skin still burned, but at least it wouldn't get worse.

Later at our midnight patrol we tried to find a place for me to take a bath. Starscream took me to the town pool. It was closed and no one was around. There were stores in the parking lot to the left, a street in front, and a park stretching behind and to the right of the fenced-in lot of the pool.

I took off my jacket and said "I don't want you looking. Bad enough I've gotta use an outdoor shower." "You'll make a break for it." "Use radar or something. I can't run if you know I'm gone, but then you still don't _see_ me." He glared for a moment, then turned his back on me. I heard repetitive, soft pings signaling his use of radar.

I took off my shirt and pants. I set them on top of my shoes, socks and jacket. I didn't feel comfortable getting totally nude in the open so I left my bra and underwear on. I still felt stupid though. I stepped under the shower head and had to bite my lip so I wouldn't squeal when the unheated water hit me.

I instantly started to shiver, but muscled through getting rid of as much grime as possible with my lack of soap. I rubbed at the red bumpy spots until the burning finally stopped. The absence of pain felt odd after an entire day of it. I rinsed my hair thoroughly and then slipped my clothes back on. My wet undergarments got my shirt and pants wet, but that was better than stepping in the shower fully clothed. Besides, iPods and water don't mix too well.

Feeling a bit better, I stepped in front of Starscream. "I sure hope you've got a heater." I said to the jet. He laughed and said "Unfortunately I don't." Then he transformed. I scrambled on top of one of his wings (having to jump to do so) and climbed into his open cockpit. He shut it and took off. "Well, you sure seem warm to me now." I said as I pressed my cold face to the warm metal seat. "Primus, you're freezing." Starscream said in reply to my touch. "That tends to happen when you shower in unheated water in winter." I replied switching my face so my other side rested against the metal. I didn't feel too bad about making him a bit cold. After all, he'd been the one to decide to kidnap me. He'd earned _a lot_ more than this. I would get him back for all this later, but for now I worried about my survival. And if survival meant I had to play nice with Screamer, then I'd begrudgingly do so.

Tonight we stopped at Savon for dinner. I had the leash on again (unfortunately) and I picked up a few snacks. When got back to base I went under the bed as usual. Thundercracker dropped off Starscream's cube and Starscream and I ate, then went to sleep. I curled under my blanket, getting it damp from my still wet form, wishing to be back in Starscream's warmth. Or rather, I just found it fun to make him flinch away from my cold skin. It felt good to get a bit of revenge.


	60. Uncomfortable Questions

Starscream

Ok, now she surely must be comfortable with me. Considering she basically _threw herself down my ventilation shaft_. She wouldn't do that with just anyone. So now would be the best time to get my information.

Besides, I'm not sure how long Megatron will keep the punishment up. I don't know what I'll do with her if I've got monitor duty. And the different patrol times will mess with her eating habits.

And the Autobots will surely be here soon. Honestly, I was shocked they hadn't shown up yet. Then again, storming our own base took lots of planning. We had more weapons, more cover, and a "home field advantage" as the fleshlings called it.

Now is the time to make my move. I regret having to squish her when it's all over... **no**! I'm a Decepticon. Who cares for the insignificant insects? ...Me. Curse my soft malleable spark! My time being a scientist softened me. I researched the uncharted planet later to be Earth. Back then I was intrigued by the species. Maybe when I do finally squish her, I'll be rid of the weakness that has stolen my spark.

Hailey

We were on midnight patrol. After 2 weeks of being with Starscream, the midnight shift were finally catching up to me. I dozed in the cockpit but jstirred when Starscream spoke to me. "Just thinking here, but it's been a while since you've been home huh?" "Uh, yeah. Oh boy. Homework will _not_ be fun..." "That implies you plan on returning." "Well yeah, the Autobots'll save me." "You haven't given up on them _yet_?" "I'd never." "So do you miss it back at the base?" "Yeah..." "What did you do there?" I jerked fully aware. I'd been kind of drowsy before, but I was wide awake now. I realized I'd stiffened so I quickly pretended that I'd just been turning over. I leaned against the seat and now felt awkward. I hadn't realized how far I'd let my guard slip. But it snapped back up instantly when he started probing. I had to remind myself that Starscream was a murderer. But for some reason, that didn't come easy.

Starscream expected a reply. I'd already delayed 2 seconds and he would get suspicious. I tried to keep a drowsy effect in my tone as I asked "What do you mean?" "Oh, who'd you stay with? Where did you go? Did you go and surf the web? What sites did you browse? Things like that." _Yup. Definitely probing._ I thought bitterly. I had to be careful. If I refused an answer he'd get mad. If I gave an answer... I didn't even want to complete that thought.

"Uh... Depended on the day. I hung out with everyone. And since I went with a zillion different people I went a zillion different places. I'm not much for the internet. I usually just read. You ever read the Harry Potter series? It's really good. It's about a wizard." I tried to change the subject and stayed vague. The air in the cockpit somehow felt cold. I knew that there was no actual thermal change, just the cold awkwardness. "I'm not so good at reading english. But Mirage is kinda like a wizard with his powers of invisibility huh?" _He's good._ "Ha, yeah! He's really good at hide and seek." I had to seem unperturbed. "Hound too I bet?" "Oh yeah. Got me every time. And I thought I'd have a size advantage." We laughed, but the mirth was completely false.

I pretended to knot off. He let me sleep. Or at least he thought he did. His disguised annoyance was almost tangible. Maybe that was just my mind messing with me. It probably was. Starscream was a little bit of a better lier than that. I pretended to sleep the rest of patrol, as to avoid any more questions.

We were having dinner. "Doh! My chips are under the bed. Help me down?" I said to Starscream. I was so worried about our previous conversation that I was now a bit forgetful. Starscream set me on the ground and I quickly darted under the bed. I grabbed the chips and ran back out.

Once back on the berth I saw that my energon had already been poured. I smiled and took a sip. It tasted funny. I figured Starscream did something to it. How he got stuff to mess with my drink with I'll never know. I had no idea what it was, but I'd already taken a sip so I swallowed what I had in my mouth. I hoped it wasn't anything too strong. I had no intention of drinking any more.

I set down the cup next to my bag of chips I grabbed the bag and purposely brushed against the cup. It tipped and I gasped and put on a false shocked expression as it fell off the berth and splattered over the floor. I had waited for Starscream to finish his cube so I was in the clear. When I slept that night I was sure to keep my water bottle under the covers with me. _I won't let him drug this._ I thought determinately as I hugged it close like a teddy bear. Then I fell asleep.

Starscream

_She's good. But not better than me. _I got up after she was asleep and made sure that the soundproofing on my door was in tact. It was. I'd installed it when I first got the room, and It had come in handy. Now It would do so once again. _You won't evade me any more you worthless lump of meat!_ I shouted mentally as I grinned wickedly. _Now where did I put my energon prod?..._


	61. Out of the Frying Pan and into the Fire

I was in a dark room. I wasn't in a cage anymore, and I couldn't see anything. Suddenly, a spotlight from nowhere illuminated a wide area. I sat near the edge of the pool of light. Off on the other side was Optimus. "Optimus!" I called. He didn't hear me, and it was for a good reason. I hadn't spoken. I tried again. Nothing. My throat felt strained. So I abandoned my attempts of speech and ran over to him. I was intending to run to him and attach myself to his leg, as it was common for me to do as a greeting with my robotic friends. My feet felt leaden and my running was painfully slow. Once I finally reached him, I phased right through. I walked through where I _should_ have bumped against warm metal. I fell to my knees as I slid back as if on a conveyor belt, even though none were present. I slid to the center of the pool of light. Metallic footsteps alerted me to the coming of another bot. Behind me stood Bee. He stood rigid. I ignored his emotionless expression and blank optics, just happy to have two of my favorite bots in the room. "Bee!" I called. Again, no sound. I smiled at him instead. Neither spoke or even reacted in any way. Both pairs of optics were glazed over and they had no emotion displayed on their facial plating. "Guys?" I tried. Yet again no sound. When would I learn?

I turned as Bee started to crumble. His bright yellow armor fell away, leaving behind the crouching form of Starscream. He straightened and wore an unchanging evil smile as he looked down to me. I tried to run, but my leaden feet were too slow. Starscream scooped me up and dangled my by the arms. Megatron phased in from the darkness and grabbed Optimus by his neck. Megatron lifted poor Optimus over his head so that his blue feet didn't even make contact with the slate gray floor. Optimus weakly struggled as Megatron ran him through with a purple energy blade. His blood red optics burned brightly as I yelled "NO!" fruitlessly; still no sound. I tried to wriggle free as Optimus' optics turned gray from lack of life. His limbs slumped uselessly. Starscream chose this moment to encase me in his hands. His fingers curled around me tightly, even my head. He started to squeeze and I struggled more violently.

I woke with a start as pain split my head. I opened my eyes. I was completely wrapped in my blanket from my feet to my head. I disentangled myself from the greasy rag and sat up. I put one hand to my sore head and the other behind me on the cold cage floor, leaning on it for support. "Oh, that's gonna be a bruise..." I whined as I rubbed the tender spot in the center of my forehead.

"I see you're finally awake." I jumped and my head snapped in the direction of the voice. "Ohh..." I groaned, putting my hand to my head again. The abrupt movement hurt my head. "You were kicking and squirming." Starscream continued. "Very bad dream." I explained curtly. "You spoke too. 'Optimus' you said. A couple nanocliks later, again you said 'Optimus.' Then another few nanoclicks and you said 'Bee'. Then 'Guys' and 'No.' Then just small grunts as you flailed wildly. Ended up curled like a caterpillar in that rag there. I assume you woke up when you slammed your head on the bars." "Oh, and you didn't feel the need to wake me up?" "It was entertaining." Starscream said, shrugging. He reached under the berth with the arm not attached to the elbow he was using for support. "Some crazy dream huh?" Starscream asked. "It was terrible. Hopefully I forget it." Starscream nodded. "What happened? Do you miss your pathetic guardians?" Starscream mocked. I flipped him off. All that got me was a laughing seeker.

He dumped me on his hand and put me in his cockpit. He grabbed my leash too. It was the morning patrol, so it was highly unlikely he'd need it, but he always took it anyways.

Starscream

I'd have to wait until after the morning patrol to do my more direct interrogation, so I may as well act like her friend until then. It would be unnecessary to rattle her ahead of time. It would be best to do it unexpectedly. Then she has no time to prepare. If I get hostile early, she'll try to escape. That would be easily overpowered, but annoying.

Hailey

The patrol passed smoothly. No questions or prodding, which got me worried. _Why is he back to being my friend?_ I pondered. I kept my guard up; it was all I could do.

Once we got to the base his friendly smile disappeared. Once I was out of his cockpit and on his hand I said "I'm beat. The midnight shift is finally getting to me. Can I go take a nap in my cage?" I was trying to get away from him. I didn't like the dark look in his crimson optics. "No. I've got other plans for you." Starscream replied bluntly. He tightened his grip on me and I ended up with my body wrapped tightly to the point of discomfort with only my arms, shoulders, and head sticking out. His fingers were so high up on my torso that I couldn't put my arms down and they stuck out at right angles to the rest of my body.

"What're you doing?" I yelled as I squirmed. He ignored me and crossed the room. He grabbed my leash, which had been wrapped around his wrist like a bracelet and put one link on a hook in the ceiling I hadn't noticed before. Then he proceeded to try and wrap the chain around my left wrist. I flailed it wildly, trying to evade his hand, but he eventually pinched my forearm with his index finger and thumb of the hand that was still holding me. His middle finger, ring finger, and pinky still kept my body in place. All I could do now was wave my hand. It made no difference as he coiled the chain around my left wrist twice.

He fought me again for my right hand. The struggle was a bit longer since I'm more adept with my right hand, as are most humans. He eventually wrapped my wrist in the same manner. He attached one link of the chain to another ceiling mounted hook. A good forty feet of excess chain hung to my right, and it didn't even come near touching the floor; which made sense since the room was built for a 2 story tall robot.

I dangled helplessly by my wrists, which was very painful even after a mere few seconds. "Oww! Lemme down!" I demanded. "You are in no position to make demands." was the cold reply from my captor. He didn't even look up. He was bent over with his helm and servos inside a big chest. It reminded me of a toy box but knew it wasn't near that innocent. He dug around for a solid minute and finally his limbs and helm reappeared as a triumphant smile spread over his facial plating and he cried "Ah hah!"

He had a long silver stick. On the very end it forked. It had a button near the base, and except for that button it looked like a metallic snake's tongue. "What're you gonna do? Poke me?" I asked. Starscream pressed the button and purple sparks flared between the two prongs of the fork. "As a matter of fact, yes." Starscream said taking a step toward me.


	62. The Prod

I panicked as the sparks came closer. He held the prod mere inches from the delicate skin on my neck. "Tell me what I want to know." Starscream demanded dangerously. "Go frag yourself, Decepticreep." I replied. I gritted my teeth, for I knew much pain would come. I was right. He jabbed my neck and held it there mercilessly as I screamed in agony and tried to squirm away. I got the chains swinging and he just followed me with the prod. After a whole 5 seconds of pain he pulled away and screeched "Tell me!"

I coughed. His face was so close that I decided to not use my tortured throat and just spat on him instead. He swiped away the offensive moisture and stabbed me again. Not only did he prod me in the same spot, but this time he let the pointed forks sink into my flesh. He removed the bloody instrument and I felt the slow trickle of blood. Luckily, he hadn't jabbed too hard, otherwise I would have been dead. It had probably sunk in an eight of an inch, judging by the blood on the prod. It wasn't that bad of an injury but it was sure as the pit painful.

"Gee, thanks. There goes another good shirt." I said hoarsely. He jabbed me again. He was so precise that he again hit the same spot. The prods sunk into the previous holes and dug a mere millimeter deeper. He held it there longer this time. My head was getting fuzzy. I didn't think I'd last much longer.

I got an idea just then. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe would be proud of me if I ever managed to get back home. "Ok... I'll talk..." I said weakly. I had to keep the smile off my face, which was easy since I was in such agony. I'd long since lost feeling in my hands and wrists. My neck still tingled painfully, but was going numb. _Thank god for small miracles._ I thought bitterly as my neck faded into numbness. "Yes? I'm _waiting_." Starscream said, again displaying his bloody prod. "Ok... search the internet. Put in your name and the word 'yaoi' and search images. That's spelled Y-A-O-I." He looked at me skeptically but lowered the prod and looked thoughtful. His face contorted in revulsion and he looked like was was about to purge. I couldn't help but burst out in laughter. "I _finally_ found at least _one_ good use for yaoi!" I said between fits of laughter. He looked like he was about to explode. He viciously stabbed me yet again. This time he chose a new spot and created new holes. I screamed in agony until he finally pulled away. The world quickly went black.

* * *

I woke slowly. I made no noise as I lifted my head. My neck was stiff. Everything was dark. I remembered where I was. Dry blood caked over my four holes. The ones he'd made with the last prod were much shallower than the others. _Well, gross as that is, at least I'm not bleeding._ I thought. Dry blood was also in a thin stream down my neck and to the collar of my shirt, where there was a big reddish-brown stain.

I gripped the chain above my wrapped wrists and tried to lift myself off my wrists. I was unsuccessful, so I grabbed the excess chain with my feet and used that as leverage. Now a little of my weight was off my abused wrists. I felt blood rushing to my fingers and was grateful. The chain made no noise thankfully. I rested there, ignoring the protests of my weak hands. My knees started shaking and I slipped. I swung by my wrists painfully and the chain clacked into the wall. I winced at the sound that seemed as loud as a gunshot in the silence of the room. I dared look to Starscream's berth and for a moment I thought I hadn't woken him. I was wrong.

Crimson optics lit up across the room and he sat up. I groaned as he stood and flipped the light switch. My head was still hazy, and I didn't think that was going to change anytime soon. I was barely aware. In started thinking about what I'd done a moment before while Starscream wordlessly went to get his prod out of the big "Torture box" as I decided to call it. _If I can barely even understand what's happening, how did I figure how to do that? Why did I even __need__ to do that? ...Starscream hung me up... Oh yeah, I told him to look up yaoi._ I smirked at the last part but the smile instantly fell from my face, because Starscream was once again in front of me with his prod.

"Now, what do you know? No more yaoi slag either." he said. He shuddered at the last part. I didn't blame him. I even shudder at the thought of yaoi. _Somebody still needs to invent brain bleach..._ I thought. My hazy mind just couldn't stay focused. "_Well_?" he asked again, impatient. I blew a raspberry at him. He jabbed me again, not drawing blood luckily and I was unconscious once again.

Starscream

"Wake up you pathetic insect!" I yelled at the limp form. Of course it didn't work. It hadn't last time either. _Why do they have to be so __weak__?_ I thought angrily. I turned to go back into recharge when she stirred behind me.

I spun on my heel and demanded "Speak, fleshling!" while I brandished the prod. "Mommy, can we go get some pie?" She said, before her head slumped onto her chest again. "_What?_" I asked, baffled. "5 more minutes dad..." she said again randomly. "If you're not going to talk sense, then shut up!" "Soldier! You're out of uniform! Put on some pants." "Excuse me?" "Get off the lawn Einstein..." "I said _shut_ _up!_" "flabbergasted..." I threw my prod down onto my berth angrily. I undid her from her chains and shoved her into her cage. I kicked the cage under the berth and climbed back onto my bed. I threw my prod across the room. It skidded to a halt under my desk. "Whatever. I'll take care of it tomorrow." I muttered.

Just before I fell into recharge I heard a faint "Crab cakes?..." from under the bed. Then I heard soft breathing, indicating that she fell into stasis._ Finally!_ I thought gratefully as I shut down for recharge.


	63. Contact

I roused slowly. I was sore all over, with pain still lingering in my wrists, head, and neck. I tried to sit up and was unsuccessful. I tried again, and managed, with difficulty. My right leg refused to cooperate. _Slag! He shorted out my hydraulics!_ I fumed.

My head was still fuzzy, so I sat back against the bars and let it clear up. I sat for about 15 minutes, just staring off into space.

I pulled myself back to reality, turned on my iPod and used my flashlight app. _I guess this app isn't so useless after all._ I shrugged as I turned up the brightness. I shined it on my sore wrists in turn. They were still red and just barely showed the impressions the chains had left.

I checked the time on my iPod. It read 1:03. _So Starscream's in the middle of his midnight patrol!_ I thought, happy to be away from the prod for at least another hour.

I didn't know what to do until then, and since I wanted to sleep while Starscream was here (_hopefully_ to keep me away from the prod) slumber was out of the question.

_ Hey, can I even speak? Hmm..._ I tried, but only a hoarse whisper escaped my throat. _Perfect_.

I needed something to do, so I rubbed away the dried stream of blood from my neck, but left the blood over my holes. _Great. I look like I got attacked by twin vampires._

I quickly got bored. _Amazing. Even in life or death situations I can get bored. A-fragging-mazing. _I decided to listen to my iPod. Once I started to, I noticed my battery meter. _Full battery? Wasn't this thing dying? Wow. Starscream's prod ended up charging my iPod!_ I smiled slightly.

I kept my com link wide open. I was sending a homing signal. I finally _could_ because Starscream was no longer here to monitor me, and everyone else had long since been asleep. _The Autobots are probably asleep too, but this is all I can do. _

I found a ball-point pen in my jacket pocket, so I started writing song lyrics all over my arms and hands by the light of my iPod.

* * *

By the time I'd run out of room on both my arms and hands, and was considering to start on my legs a voice came over the com. "Hailey? Are you there?" I attempted to answer "Mirage!" and that of course didn't work out so well. "You ok?" Mirage asked, concerned about the condition of my voice. "Mmhm." I answered. It came out hoarse, but understandable. _Why was I ok when I was back-talking Starscream but not __now__? When I actually __need__ it? Probably slaggin' swelling. Fraggit!_ "Thank god you're sending out that homing signal. We were having trouble making a plan to storm the joint, and now I can just sneak in instead. Are you alone?" "Mmhm." "Are the 'Cons asleep?" "Mmhm." Then I'll have you out in a matter of minutes. I'm just outside the Annihilation. So _do not_ scream when the vent cover falls from he ceiling." _Like I __could__, even if I wanted to._ I thought, rolling my eyes.

I turned off my iPod and wrapped up the earbuds. I shoved the bundle in my jeans pocket. _Mirage better hurry. Starscream is due back soon._ I thought anxiously as I looked up to the red digits on Starscream's industrial sized digital clock. It read 1:47. _If only I could tell him! _

2 minutes later the air vent fell from the ceiling. I jerked up and tried to locate Mirage. _Cloaking device is up. Duh._ I thought as I facepalmed at my stupid attempts to see him. He homed in on the signal, but when I heard a light tap on top of the berth I mentally yelled _Right spot, wrong side!_ I attempted to make noise. Mirage heard me croak "Mirage!" I heard barely audible noises, suggesting that he was moving, then suddenly the cage started to move.

Mirage disengaged his cloaking device for a moment as he held the cage up to eye level. Seeing it was locked, and not wanting to make any noise he simply took the whole cage. His voice came over my com explaining "I can't get you out just now. It'd make too much noise. Hold tight 'till we get outside."

He gently shoved my cage through the air vents. He'd turned his cloaking device back on. Unfortunately, since I wasn't invisible, a security alarm was set off half way out of the blasted ship. Mirage abandoned all attempts of stealth and decided to switch to speed as he used his blaster on the corner of my cage. I squeezed through, careful not to touch the red hot metal. He picked me up and descended through the nearest opening. He fell to the base floor with only the slightest clank.

I was placed on his shoulder as he sprinted through the dark ship. The only lights were the flashing red bulbs of the alarm. Mirage was on a direct path to the main exit. He was already past the rec room, now all that was left was to pass the command room, then it was just two short hallways to the door.

Mirage was unopposed until the command room. Once Mirage turned the corner to the giant command center, I saw that every Decepticon available was there. They all had slightly dim optics, and were all extremely cranky. I didn't blame them. After all, even evil alien robots need their sleep.

Mirage had to maneuver awkwardly to avoid laserfire, and I ended up slipping from his shoulder. I hit his knee and rolled down his shin to the floor. I stopped about 10 feet away from his ped. I scrambled to the edge of the room to avoid being hit. Mirage did the same.

The Decepticons were so tired that there wasn't any real aim, just random fire. But that didn't make it any less dangerous. Unfortunately Mirage and I had ended up on opposite ends of the room. The laserfire was too thick to join up again through the command room. "I'll meet up with you. Go back toward the rec room and make a right. I'll meet you at the end of that hall." Mirage ordered via com link as he disappeared around the corner.

I stood up unsteadily and hopped my way down the hall. _Frag this overloaded hydraulic leg! _I cursed as I hopped down the hall. I had my hand against the wall for support. I finally made it half way down the designated hall when Mirage hurriedly scooped me up.

He made a sharp U-turn in the hall and sped back toward the doors. Mirage had to dodge a few bullets when the Decepticons finally slogged down the hall to our right. He sprinted out the large double doors and threw me high in the air. I landed in his cab with a thump.

"Thank you." I said hoarsely as I hugged the steering wheel. I leg go of his dashboard and laid back on his metal seats gratefully. "Glad to have you back. Now, why couldn't you speak?" I pulled down the collar of my shirt and raised my head to reveal my wounded neck. I pointed to the electrical burns. "Ouch! What the frag did they do to you?" "Energon prod." I replied. It hurt to speak, and it was hard to understand, but at least I could communicate.

"And why were you so slow?" he continued. I grabbed my leg, lifted it, then let it drop. "Overloaded my hydraulics." I said, shrugging. "We gotta get you back to base and let Ratchet check you out." "Isn't he asleep?" "Nobody is. As soon as we got your weak homing signal, I was dispatched right away. Your family is there too." "Really?" "Yup. Everyone's there to see if you made it back ok. Your parents were worried sick. They were over at the Ark 24/7 prodding Optimus to get the plan in order so we could save you. I think they were even planning to make an appearance as Karma and Jag." "Wow..."

My two week stay suddenly seemed like years. I leaned against Mirage's driver side door and watched the stars in the sky streak past until we reached the Ark.

* * *

My family smothered me when I hopped through the doors. Ratchet pried me away from them long enough to give me a medical check. He gave me one of my mini-energon cubes and a bottle of water. He cleaned the dried blood away from my holes and disinfected them. He gently but firmly tied a cloth bandage around my neck to stop the bleeding. "I'll fix you up proper in the morning. I think you have a family you'd like to get back to." he said with a smile. I was surprised he let me go after one scan, but happy. He sat in his desk chair and started to look over the data from the scanner. Meanwhile I slung my arm around my dad's shoulders and used him as support. Taylor attached herself like a parasite to my free side, and my mom walked behind me with her hands on my shoulders.

My family and I stayed in my room at the Ark that night. I was on the bed, Taylor was on the couch, and my parents shared a huge sleeping bag on the floor. I snuggled into the sheets, which felt like clouds compared to the cage floor and a cleaning rag. I fell asleep with a smile on my face.


	64. Return to Normality

Ratchet woke me up an hour earlier than I'd normally wake up for school and fixed my leg. Once home my mom used cover up to make my burns invisible and you couldn't see my 4 holes unless you were looking for them.

* * *

I finally got back to school. Make-up work was a _killer_. I waddled home with a backpack of back-breaking weight. I dropped it down on my bedroom floor with a resounding thunk. "What was that?" My mom called up from downstairs. "My backpack." I called back. "Ouch." She said sympathetically.

I cleared off my desk and got out a pencil. I dug around in my near-to-exploding backpack and unwedged my geometry textbook. I looked to the pencil and paper on my desk to the textbook in my arms. I heaved a heavy sigh and set to work.

* * *

Hours later, I shut my english textbook with a satisfying thud. I set about packing my backpack again. Once all my papers were neatly put away, I grabbed the plate that had held my PB&J sandwich earlier that night from the dresser to the right of my desk. I climbed down the stairs and set the dish in the sink.

I wandered back upstairs and I finally dared to look at the clock. It read 11:18. I'd started at 4 o'clock on the dot. _I even worked through dinner! And I __still__ had 7 straight hours of work! Oh well. At least I'm finally __done__._ I said mentally.

I looked out my door and down the hall. I saw through the open door of my parents' room. The TV was on, but there was no sound except soft snoring from my mother. _Dad fell asleep with his headphones on again._ I thought as I smiled and rolled my eyes to the ceiling. _TV really is your lullaby, dad._

I switched my gaze to my little sister. She had long since konked out, and she looked so innocent in sleep. Taylor was on her side, rolled away from the light. She had her arm over her eyes, probably to block out the light. I pulled the comforter back up to her shoulder, seeing that she'd kicked it down to her hips. I brushed her bangs out of her face. She stirred, but didn't wake.

I stepped on the bottom rung of the ladder to my top bunk and grabbed my balled up PJs. I walked into the bathroom with the bundle in hand. I emerged 4 minutes later with teeth brushed, face washed, and PJs on. I finally turned off the light and scrambled into my bed. I pulled up the covers and fell asleep thinking _I'm gonna be so __out of it__ tomorrow!_


	65. A Well Earned Weekend

(((AN: Ok, quick blab here. Energon goodies for anyone who knows what book I'm reading!)))

The homework free weekend made my backpack amazingly light. It was Friday and I was feeling good. I'd caught up with make-up work the first night, I'd had light homework the rest of the week, and now no homework for the 3 day weekend. _It's almost like the universe is trying to make up for 2 weeks of Starscream._ I mused as I bid farewell to Scribble and Zoe and sat under a tree and read.

Harry, Ron, and Hermione were just in the Ministry of Magic looking for the Horcrux locket when a horn sounded from the parking lot loop in front of me. Horn honks were frequently heard of course, but I looked up anyways. In front of me was a yellow bug. The door swung open to reveal an 18 year old boy with eyes the same color as mine. "Hey Bee!" I called, making him smile wider. I snapped my book shut and slung my unzipped backpack on one shoulder. I clambered into the car and buckled in. He pulled out of the lot and merged with traffic as I put my book away and took my reading glasses off. With everything away, I zipped up my backpack. That took about 10 seconds. "So, what's the occasion?" I asked, turning to the boy in the driver's seat. He turned to look at me with one hand on the wheel. "No occasion. Do I need an occasion to come see my human buddy?" "'Course not! I was just surprised to see you." "I'm taking you to the Ark. I already got your parents' ok and everything. Am I cool or what?" "You're the best! I knew there was a reason I hung out with you. I'd give you a hug, but you're just a hologram." "And a car." he corrected. We both laughed.

We reached the Ark about 5 minutes later. We walked through the double doors- actually I take that back. Just Bee walked; I was on his shoulder, as customary. We goofed off for about an hour, but then he had to go. "I doubt you want to go with me to monitor duty." "Ugh. Boring." "Exactly. Run along, maybe we'll meet up later." He smiled and left.

I climbed down the ladder off the table I'd been sitting on and exited the nearly empty rec room. _Hmm... What to do?_ I was so deep in thought that I didn't even register the white ped that stepped over me. (It also helped that I was used to being stepped over) Wheeljack stopped and turned. He got curious because I was staring at the floor, not blinking, and not watching where I was going. And yet I managed to not walk into a wall. (Go figure) "Hey Hailey! What'cha doing?" Wheeljack asked, earfins glowing blue. "Hm? Oh Nothing. Just wondering the Ark halls, bored." I said as I pulled myself back to reality. I shrugged as I said "bored". "Well, I've got something for you to do, if you're interested." Wheeljack offered. "Sure! Need help with something?" "Sorta." "What d'ya mean 'Sorta'?" "Remember how I modified the headmasters?" "Yeah." "Well, they haven't been tested yet. We've kinda been procrastinating that. And I'm sure Optimus would like to escape the endless data pads for a while." "Sure, sounds interesting. Could even be fun!" "That's the spirit!"

He was obviously excited, so rather than wait for me to crawl on his servo, he swung his hand down and knocked the back of my knees. I ended up collapsing onto his palm. He swooped his servo upward and in one motion, dumped me on his shoulder. "Where'd you learn to do that?" I laughed as he walked down the halls, only slightly faster than usual. "Hm? Oh. I've known about that glitch for a while. I finally got to use it after all!" I laughed at the term usage said "I wasn't aware humans could get glitches." "Well, I guess more of a malfunction then?" I laughed again. "Using machine terms doesn't usually translate to humans." "Well, They're the only terms I know off the top of my head." Wheeljack said, shrugging. "Woah!" I squawked instinctively. "Oops." he apologized. "No worries. I should be used to that by now. Key word being _should_."

By this time we had reached Optimus' office. Wheeljack lightly knocked. "Come in." came Optimus' reply. Wheeljack hit the button and the door swooshed open. Optimus was just finishing the process of standing up when we entered. He set his datapad down next to a mound of others. "Hey Optimus!" I greeted. He looked down at me and said "Hello there, Hailey." "You know what? You're too dang tall!" I accused playfully. I stood and walked over to Wheeljack's helm. I scrambled up his helm, careful to be gentle on the hand and footholds. In a mere 10 seconds I sat on the top of Wheeljack's helm. "Ok, It's a _little_ better now." I could see the smile in Optimus' eyes, even though it was blocked from sight by his faceplate.

"So, What brings you two here?" Optimus asked. "Well, sir, we've come to offer you an escape from the datapads for a while." Wheeljack said, being careful to keep his head level. "The new headmaster set up needs to be tested, and we were wondering if now was a good time?" he continued. "Splendid idea, I need a break from these." Optimus said, gesturing to the mound of datapads.

We walked out of Optimus' quarters and went to the training room. Wheeljack transferred me to his hand, and Optimus was about to transform as Wheeljack said "Hold on a moment sir. We'll be using the other entrance this time." "There's a way that doesn't involve transforming?" I asked. "It's a new feature." Wheeljack said as he set me on Optimus' shoulder. "Hailey, go to the back of his head, Optimus you'll have to open the door there." I maneuvered back to his helm and slowly and reluctantly, a door opened there. It lifted like the door on the Delorian in Back to The Future. "That's new." Optimus commented. I quickly went through the door and Optimus shut it, it went faster this time.

"Ok, now get your sensors on Hailey. To do that, step on the 360 degree treadmill. Two handles will come down. Put your hands on them and look straight forward. Optimus, lower the handles." Wheeljack instructed through the com link. (Now that I was in Optimus' head our whole conversation was via com.) I did as he said, and sure enough, two metal rods came down from the ceiling. They bent 90 degrees at the end, making a three inch handle of sorts. I gripped the handles so that my arms were perpendicular with the rest of my body. I just reached comfortably. I looked forward. "Ok, this part is you Hailey. There's a button on the tip of the right handle, press it." Wheeljack said. I glanced right. I noticed a smooth blue bump on the end of the rod. I pressed it and looked forward. I fought the urge to move out of the way as the two halves of the sensor suit latched on. Now I had a metal loop around my head. That was connected to a ring around the base of my neck. I had a metal skeleton over my limbs and torso. Wires criss-crossed everywhere between the metal skeleton. There was a visor over my eyes, and I saw eveything that Optimus did. _That explains why the screens are gone._ I thought.

"I feel like C3PO without gold plating." I commented. "What?" Wheeljack asked. "Nevemind, Star Wars reference." "Human pop culture?" Optimus asked. "It's a very famous movie. I've really gotta show you that sometime." _And Indiana Jones, and Back to the Future, and Frankenstein, and King Kong… _I started to lost off must-see movies in my head. I was so busy with that that I didn't hear Wheeljack at first. "Hailey? Cybertron to Hailey!" "Huh? Sorry, I was just making a list of movies I've gotta show you guys. What were you saying?" "Amazing, you can still get so easily side-tracked even when you're inside a giant robot's head." Wheeljack teased. "Don't remind me! Then it gets awkward." I complained. "Awkward for _you_?" Optimus piped up.

"Moving on." Wheeljack cut off, but not in any angry way. "The controls are mental now." Wheeljack stated. "Oh, so that's why I've got a loop around my head?" I asked, fixing my hair under the ring. "That, and so you can move Optimus' head when you take over control." "The way you say it, I feel like I'm possessing him." I paused, then giggled a bit at a certain G1 centric thought came to mind. "What's so funny?" Wheeljack asked, hearing my mirth. "Well, It's just a thought I had." "That thought being?" "OoOoOoOoOohhhhhh… I'm Starscream's ghost! OoOoOoOoOohhhhhh…" I said in the cheesiest ghost voice possible, making it high pitched, and a bit screechy to impersonate Starscream. We all laughed.

"Alright, miss phantom Starscream. Now all you gotta do is think a command. Try talking through Optimus instead of the com." "Easier said than done. How the frag do you do the whole making-stuff-work-even-though-you've-never-even-used-it Optimus?" "It's a robot thing." Optimus replied. "Well, I'm no robot." I said. "Well, mostly." I amended, remembering my knee and Cascade. "Just think about it, like the first time you transformed as Cascade." Wheeljack said. I thought about the first time I'd been in the headmaster and used Optimus' voice. "Did I fail?" I asked. When I heard a deep masculine voice, I knew I'd succeeded. "I did it!" I said through Optimus. "Oh scrap, how do I turn this off?" I asked again through Optimus. "All mental." Wheeljack said calmly. "Like that?" I asked, with my own voice this time.

"Ok, now Hailey, take control of Optimus." I thought about that and then I stuck both my arms in front of me and did a zombie walk. Optimus mirrored me exactly. I took his voice and said "Braaaaaaaaiiiinnnnnnsss..." Ironhide walked in just then. Seeing what Optimus was doing he stopped dead. "Right. I'm out." He said as he spun on his heel and walked away. I released control as I bent over laughing. "What timing!" I said between laughter. Wheeljack couldn't help but laugh, and the embarrassed expression on Optimus' face didn't help that. But after a few seconds, Optimus joined in the laughter.

Once we'd all collected ourselves Wheeljack said. "Ok, you got that quickly. Now for the last addition. Hailey, time to Transform." "What?" I asked, confused. "Take control of Optimus and make him transform." Wheeljack stated calmly. "But won't Hailey be crushed?" Optimus asked. "You'll see what happens." Wheeljack said. "Ok, I'm pretty sure you guys wouldn't kill me, so..." I trailed off as I took control and thought of Optimus' semi truck alt mode. I lurched downward in Optimus' head, signaling the start of the transformation process. The walls of the room around me started to close in. _What the? That couldn't have happened!_ I thought, staring at the advancing wall. The room shrunk and I started to feel claustrophobic. I thought something had gone wrong, and I squeezed my eyes shut. When everything stopped, I dared to open my eyes. I was sitting in Optimus' cab. "How did that work?" My voice was very different. I could distinguish my own voice if I listened through the roboticness. "What the?" I asked of no one in particular. I reached for the door handle to step out, and I noticed my arm. It wasn't the fleshy arm I was expecting. It was metal. It was dark blue and silver. I pulled my arm back and felt my head. I nearly skewered my index finger on one of the spikes on my head. I also had a faceplate. My visor from the sensor suit adjusted so that I saw through blue optics. _I'm a robot now?_ I thought, confused. _No, wait. I've got a heartbeat... _

I stepped out of Optimus' cab. "How do you like your new exo-suit?" Wheeljack asked happily. "Since when can this happen? And how is this possible?" I asked, raising an eyebrow- er optic ridge. "One of the upgrades." Wheeljack said simply. I experimentally walked around. It felt different. _I wonder how I look?_ I walked over to a mirror on the west wall. I had a faceplate and spikes like Optimus, but more feminine looking. On the back of my head, there was a metal piece that resembled a ponytail, just like on Cascade. I had an Autobot logo on my chest plating. I saw how Wheeljack had taken design ideas from both Optimus and Cascade to make this exo-suit.

"Ok, I think Optimus might like his head back. How would one go about that?" I asked. "Simple. Optimus, transform and everything is automatically taken care of." In the next moment, my exo-suit started to loosen. In a few seconds I was back in the control room of Optimus' head and Optimus' helm was firmly attached to his shoulders. I quickly exited and wandered around trying to find someone else to bug.


	66. The Twins Discover Yaoi

I walked back to the rec room; the best place to go looking for bored bots. I noticed that Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were sitting on the couch in front of the TV. (Wheeljack had made the TV. This particular invention was finished with (surprisingly enough) no explosions.) There was a small coffee table between the TV screen and the couch, which a few bots used as a footrest, as the Lambo twins were just then.

They were channel surfing. Sunstreaker held the remote. Both were staring at the screen unblinkingly with bored expressions. That's when I remembered what I'd told Starscream at the Annihilation. I skipped up to the couch and climbed onto the table. The twins were so absorbed in their boredom that they didn't see me do that. Their optics had a glazed over look that suggested their thoughts were elsewhere. I walked to the edge of the table so that I had a yellow ped on my left and a red one on my right. I balled my hands up into fists and lightly knocked on both peds simultaneously. The twins snapped out of their trance and directed their attention to the disturbance at their feet. They simultaneously took their peds off the table. It almost reminded me of Reflector, they were in such perfect sync.

"Hey." Sunstreaker greeted. "Sup?" Sideswipe added. "I'm bored. There a problem with that?" I asked. Sunstreaker turned off the TV and set the remote down next to me. I felt more miniature by the second. The remote had fit in the palm of his hand easily. It was slightly bigger than me. As Sunstreaker leaned back into the couch he asked "So, what do ya want with us?" "Well, Sunny. I'm glad you asked. I did something I think you'll be proud of me for, but I need a computer to show you." "Lead the way, Short Stuff." he replied.

Let me explain that a bit. I called Sunstreaker Sunny and Sideswipe Sides. They hated those nicknames, so they'd of course started to call each other that. Now, they had of course tried to stop the nicknames, but they couldn't exactly punch me, as they did to each other. So as revenge, they called me names like Midget, squishy, fleshy, short stuff, etc. Sometimes they'd even call me youngling, since that's what I'd be in their species. It irked me to no end to be compared to a toddler. But usually they called me short stuff. As for each other, they just gave up on stopping it.

The twins stood. Sideswipe set his servo on the table, having to bend slightly to do so. I stepped on and they left the room. They walked back to their quarters. In their room, they had a bunk bed, with Sideswipe on top bunk. Each twin had a desk with a computer and lamp of their own. Sideswipe set me on his desk. I walked over so that I was next to the monitor. Sideswipe sat in the chair at the desk and poised his fingers over the keyboard. He'd have to type since the keyboard was in Cybertronian. The screen showed the text in english though. Meanwhile Sunstreaker grabbed the chair for his desk and dragged it up next to Sideswipe's desk so he could see.

"Ok, now an explanation is in order. While I was kidnapped by Starscream, he tortured me for information, as you already know. So, just to piss him off I told him to search 'Starscream yaoi' on Google images. Sides, if you please?" Sideswipe took his cue and typed, then waited for the page to load. I smiled as the images came up. But the smile quickly turned to disgust. I however burst out laughing at the twins' expressions. I didn't blame them, the first picture was of Megatron and Starscream making out. Somewhere further down the page, there was a picture of pregnant Starscream. "Ok, that's not even possible!" Sideswipe said as he averted his optics from the screen and pointed to the pregnant picture. "I know right?" I replied, also looking away. Sunstreaker looked on the verge of purging.

"Hey, Sides. Search 'Decepticons yaoi'!" Sideswipe reluctantly did so. Again we saw Megatron and Starscream. There was pairings with just about every Decepticon and Megatron. I saw a picture of Megatron and Optimus cuddling. _God, It's even worse on a screen 5 times the size of my laptop!_ I thought.

"It's even worse when it's inter-faction. What's wrong with these fragging yaoi fangirls?" I complained. "This crud has Autobots too?" Sunstreaker asked. "Unfortunately." I replied. "I smell blackmail!" Sideswipe said excitedly as he began to type. "No! Don't!" I yelled. I lunged toward Sideswipe's fingers, hoping to stop him. Sunstreaker stopped that quickly. He grabbed my by my ankles and held me upside down with 2 fingers. I quickly grabbed the end my shirt before it could fall down. My jacket swung down behind me and my hair flipped down.

I almost puked at the pictures. One of the most popular pairings was Prowl and Jazz. I felt queasy, I hoped I'd black out because of the blood rushing to my head, but no such luck. I only got a headache.

They stopped dead when they saw a picture of them making out. Next to that was a picture of Sunstreaker on top of Sideswipe, who was on the ground with the most disturbing looks in their eyes. Sunstreaker's grip slackened in shock. "I warned you." I stated. They snapped out of their disgusted trance and looked to me. Then they looked to each other.

Sunstreaker set me on Sideswipe's desk and practically ran out of the room. Sideswipe looked disturbed and stood to leave. I slid down the ladder and sprinted out the door at his heels, as not to get stuck in the room. Sideswipe went on the opposite direction of Sunstreaker.

For the next few days, they wouldn't go near each other, except then they needed recharge, and then they wouldn't say a word. They told no one else about yaoi. They were probably afraid that whoever they told would discover the pictures of them. I don't blame them. I get sick to my stomach when I see yaoi. I can imagine that it must be a thousand times worse when it's of you.


	67. The New and Improved Cascade

(((Ok, quick warning. This chapter contains song lyrics, and the song lyrics cuss once. But I don't think saying one light swear word is enough to up the rating, so I put this here instead.)))

* * *

I was sitting in my room at the Ark. I was sitting in front of my laptop with Facebook on. My iTunes was going. It ran my playlist or eclectic favorites. I had everything from Owl City and Panic! At The Disco to My Chemical Romance and Muse. Owl City was still my favorite band but my friend Scribble was turning me into a Killjoy (Translation: My Chemical Romance fan). Zoe was trying to turn me into a Muser (Translation: Muse fan). One of my favorite songs called "Welcome to the Black Parade" by My Chemical Romance came on. I looked over my shoulder to make sure the door was closed, then turned back to the computer. I sang along to the song. I turned up the volume a bit so that I didn't drown out the actual song and went back to frittering away on the internet.

"When I was a young boy

My father took me into the city

To see a marching band

He said, "Son, when you grow up

Would you be the savior of the broken

The beaten and the damned?

He said, "Will you defeat them

Your demons and all the non-believers

The plans that they have made?

Because one day, I'll leave you

A phantom to lead you in the summer

To join the Black Parade"

I was so absorbed in my singing that I didn't notice the door swoosh open behind me. A guitar solo came on. I jumped as I heard Wheeljack's familiar voice come from behind me. "You know, you've got a nice voice." I turned around to see him leaning in the door frame. "How long have you been here?" I asked, feeling my face heat up as it turned bright red, as it always did when I was embarrassed or angry. In this instance it was major embarrassment. "A few seconds. I was here since 'Son when you grow up'." "Oh." I said feeling my face go redder. "Oh quit being so embarrassed. I know people who sing much worse than you that sing much louder." he paused. "I might be guilty of that." He finished, earfins flashing pink in his version of blushing. I smiled and my face cooled from bright red to pink.

"So, is there a reason you came here? Besides to discuss singing?" I asked while still smiling, my face cooling all the while. "Oh. Right. I got a bit sidetracked. Anyways, I made a few modifications to Cascade. I want you to try 'em out." he answered. "Ok, sounds good." I shut my laptop and walked over. "You gonna carry me, or do I have to walk?" I asked. I saw the smile in his eyes as he set his palm on the ground, having to get one one knee to do so. "That answer your question?" he asked as I climbed onto his metallic gray palm.

"What adjustments did you make?" I asked from his shoulder as he walked through the Ark halls toward his lab. "Oh, nothing major." He said. His earfins were flashing brighter than usual. _He's definitely happy about something._ I thought. _I wonder what..._

Before we walked into the lab he stopped. "Hold on a moment." Wheeljack said. Draped on the control panel was a human sized bandana. He picked it up in his fingers and handed it to me. I looked at the cloth, then up to him. "What?" I asked, confused. "Blindfold yourself. It's a surprise." He said. His earfins were glowing extremely bright. He was really excited about whatever was behind the door. I tied the cloth around my head tightly. "I think I tied a couple hairs in the knot, but it's tight." I said after a few seconds. I checked the double knot on the back of my head and said "I'm totally blind." I heard the door swoosh open and he stepped forward. I lurched since I was unable to brace myself for movement. He picked me up my grabbing my middle with two fingers. I instinctively grabbed his fingers tightly, but I didn't protest. He set me down on something, probably a table. He gently put the mind transfer helmet on me and flipped the switch.

I woke up feeling odd. "It's been a while." I said as I stood. I stumbled backward. I twisted my torso and caught myself on the table I'd been lying on a second ago. "I don't remember my back being so heavy." I commented. I had to put my weight more forward. It felt awkward but I didn't stumble again. I looked down to my feet to see if that was the problem perhaps, they felt different... "What the? You gave me heels?" I said as I looked at my heels. They were silver. They looked familiar, but I couldn't place them. "That's not all I added. Look behind you." Wheeljack said. I turned my head and was met with something that made me yell. "**Wings**!" I looked to Wheeljack, a huge grin covering my face. "You're a triplechanger." Wheeljack nodded. He folded his arms behind him, satisfied.

"Thank you!" I squealed. In my happiness I half tackled Wheeljack. I threw my arms around him. He stumbled backwards and once he'd regained balance, he asked "What was that for?" through light laughter. "It's a hug, and it's to say thank you! Or this one may have been more of a tackle." I explained as I let him go. He spoke again, with an amused tone. "Right, well. I'm sure you're gonna want to test out the new alt, but just remember a few things. Careful what you get in your turbines. Ratchet won't be to happy to clean those out and it will be difficult to fly if they're gunked up. Secondly, if you damage your wing, don't attempt to fly. It won't work and you'll damage yourself worse." "Ok, don't fly when hurt. Simple enough, but what turbines?" "Your heels." "Ooooooh. Hey, doesn't Starscream-" "Have those too? Yes." "Thought so. Whatever, I'm out to fly!" I gave a mock salute before I ran out of the lab.

Amazingly enough, the heels and wings didn't take too long to adjust to. I stumbled twice, but didn't fall as I'd feared I would. I ran out the wide bay doors, transformed, and took off. Or rather, I tried. I didn't get far before I crashed. My systems automatically scanned for damage. I didn't realize that until the damage reports flashed in front of my optics. If I'd been a robot, I would've flinched backwards. "That's new." I said aloud as I skimmed the reports, dismissing them one at a time. No damage. Just soreness.

I decided to get farther up the mountain so I had more space, or more importantly, so no one would see me faceplant. Or whatever the plane equivalent of that is. I transformed into a car and drove up the mountain. Once I reached a high, open area I tried to transform back into a plane. I had apparently been distracted, because I got tangled. I ended up with an arm, a head, a car hood, a car door sticking out at an awkward angle, and the rest was plane, with one wing askew. "Perfect." I groaned. I righted myself and ended up as a blue F-22. I tried to take off again. I wobbled in the air for a few seconds and crashed again.

* * *

An hour later, I managed straight flight. "I'll save turns for tomorrow." I groaned as I stood as a robot and plucked a flower from my knee joint. I had barely managed a rocky landing, so the automatic damage report didn't come in as I was used to. I was proud of making a landing that didn't involve crashing, but I needed that report. I had purposely kept low, so there shouldn't have been damage, but one can never be sure. I was just wondering how to run a systems check. I tried thinking about it, as I did for all my other robot functions, and soon enough the reports flashed in my field of vision. I was right, no damage. I looked over myself. "No dents. Good. Ugh. I got a scratch in my paint. I scowled at the chipped paint on my forearm as if it was its fault for coming off. "I'll have to fix that." I said conclusively. I transformed into a car, happy to be on the ground, and drove back to the Ark.

I drove back into the Ark and transformed before I brought in too many tire tracks. I walked into Wheeljack's lab. "Being a plane is painful." I complained to Wheeljack. "Not as easy as it looks, huh?" He asked. He seemed both sorry for me, and holding back laughter. "Time for a trip to the wash racks." Wheeljack said. He led the way out. He showed me down the halls until we reached the racks. He walked up to the nearest stall. He opened the door and pointed out the knob to turn it on and off. He told me where the dryers were and all the essentials I needed to know, then he left the room and let me have my privacy. _I don't care if I'm not naked. A shower is a shower. I need to be alone. Thank god Wheeljack gets that._ I thought.

I stepped in the stall and double checked that it was locked. I turned the knob and the cleaning solvent rushed out. It was light green. _Odd._ I thought to myself. _I guess it's normal on Cybertron._ I concluded as I shrugged and stepped under the flow. I washed off all the dust and stepped out of the flow. I turned it off and tuned to the other side of the stall. I pressed the button there and a hot stream of air washed over me. Once I was mostly dry I stepped out of the stall and grabbed a towel from the shelf. (The towels were actually king sized blankets from the Goodwill. They were an addition from Earth.) I picked up a checked blanket and dried off the last bit of moisture left. I turned to put the "towel" In the basket of dirty towels and Ironhide walked in, dusty from patrol. My optics widened. He walked in and seemed surprised to see me. I dropped my towel in the basket an scuttled out. "That was awkward." I mumbled. I power-walked back to the lab.

"I don't like the washracks, too awkward." I told Wheeljack upon entry. "Why?" he asked confused. "Ironhide walked in as I was toweling off." I explained. He still didn't get it. "I felt like I got caught in the boy's bathroom." I said. My face heated up, but my blush was concealed behind metal plating. "Well, where else can you go?" He asked. "Good point." I admitted.

He walked me to the reformatting machine. "Why are we here? This changes alt." I said. "But I can get it to fix your paint too. Better using this thing than bugging Ratchet, right?" "True." I stepped in and in less than a minute I had a perfect paint job again. I switched back to my human body and stayed firmly on the ground the rest of the day. And sore for the rest of the week.


	68. Lessons in Language and Flight

I walked through the ship as Cascade, looking for Powerglide, who could hopefully teach me to fly, without as many crash landings. I heard snippets of conversation as people walked past me in the hallways. I poked my helm into the rec room, and quickly saw he wasn't there. Which was actually a good thing, because now I didn't have to ask about the embarrassing subject in front of his friends. I walked down the east hallway, and didn't see him.

I heard noise from behind the door to Wheeljack's lab, so I decided to see if he knew where the elusive plane was. I knocked on the door. "Who is it?" Wheeljack called from inside. "Cascade." I replied. "Come on in!" He called. I pressed the button on the keypad and walked inside. He was sitting at his workbench, datapad in servo. "Are you trying to avoid someone?" I asked as I entered, raising an optic ridge. The door slid shut and Wheeljack replied "I thought you may have been Prowl. I'm a bit behind on my reports." He looked at the floor. "_How_ late?" I asked. "A week." He replied, his earfins flashing pink as he reluctantly met my gaze.

"I wish I could help. But I can't read Cybertronian." I said. "Yeah you can. I've been talking in Cybertronian the whole time you've been here." I hadn't even realized until now, but it was true. "You can actually speak it too." He said. I somehow deciphered that out of the series of whistles, clicks, beeps, and whirrs that made up the Cybertronian language. "How? Since when?" I asked, shocked at my newfound knowledge. "I programmed Cascade with the datatracks when I reformatted you into a triplechanger." Wheeljack stated simply. "Well, then let me help you with those reports." I said in Cybertronian. The new sounds felt weird on my glossa, but I had no trouble understanding it. It was like it was my native language.

Only then did I notice the huge, but neat, stack of datapads on the bench on the other side of Wheeljack. There must have been 20 pads that needed to be filled and filed. Wheeljack looked guilty and hesitant. "Do you really want to have to face Prowl's wrath?" I asked in Cybertronian again as I shifted my weight to one stabilizing servo and placing a servo on my hip. He shook his helm vigorously and quickly handed me a pad. I took a seat next to Wheeljack and asked. "Now, how do you do one of these?" He walked me through the first one, and I quickly got to the pace of finishing one every 5 minutes.

* * *

An hour later, Wheeljack and I emerged from the lab. He and I each carried 10 datapads in our arms. We walked to Prowl's office. The SIC quickly opened the door. He glared at Wheeljack as he turned in his late reports, but didn't say anything besides "Next time, make sure they're on time."

Wheeljack and I left. As soon as we turned out of the west hallway and into the main hall (way out of earshot of Prowl) he cycled air through his vents in a relieved sigh. "Feels good to finally have that _done_!" He said. "Now that that is taken care of, I was wondering if you might know where Powerglide is?" I asked, remembering my initial reason for visiting the engineer. "Let's see... What time is it? Oh, I think he just got off patrol about 10 cycles ago, so he'll probably be at the wash racks. Then, knowing him, he'll either go to the rec room or his quarters." Wheeljack said. "Thanks." I said before I split from him and made a U-turn back up the east hall.

I crossed the main hall toward the west hall. Half way across, I realized how creepy that would be for me to just be sitting there waiting in front of his quarters, so I turned into the command room. I walked in and leaned against a wall, watching the orderly chaos.

This was the most busy room in the Ark. The room was almost never empty. Everyone mulled about like bees in hive, and no one ever seemed to get lost or run into anyone else. Datapads were passed from servo to servo, people were at monitors and control panels, and Optimus was at the center of the room governing it all.

Optimus had a lot on his plate. Most people (or bots for that matter) would've blown a fuse if all this responsibility was placed on them. Even the President has his cabinet, Optimus was pretty much alone. Prowl handled paperwork alright, which kept Prowl busy in his office most of the time. So, Optimus handled most of the other stuff that needed to be taken care of by himself.

I watched the commotion with interest. I checked my internal chronometer, and it told me that it had been 10 cycles since my chat with 'Jack. I slipped out of the command room and headed off to Powerglide's quarters.

I knocked on the door and was relieved when it slid open to revealed him in the doorway, one servo still on the control panel. "Hey 'Cade. What's up?" he asked. "Well, as you can see, I've gotten a few adjustments." I said as I gestured to my wings. "And, I'm not so great at flying. I was kinda wondering... Maybe... Only if you wanna..." I trailed off. I always felt awkward when asking for anything for myself. Not to mention that I felt stupid for not being able to master flight. Powerglide made it look so easy. "Flight lessons? Sure!" Powerglide said. My face, which had been heating up drastically, (thank god for metal facial plating) cooled as I asked "Really? You don't mind?" "Nah, I get it. It's harder than it looks, huh?" He said as he stepped out of the door frame and shut the door. "No kidding." I said. I vented air through my vents in an inaudible sigh of relief.

We walked outside and to the top of the mountain. With the heat today, no one was on the trail. It was 98 degrees Fahrenheit. Luckily, it doesn't have an effect on robots. (Which, in all honesty, was the reason I was Cascade.) "So, how much have you learned about flight?" Powerglide turned to me and asked. "Well, I've only been flying once before. And it wasn't so successful. After about an hour of crash landings, I managed straight flight. That's about it. And even then, I was keeping really low so I'm not sure if I was even doing it right. So, basically nothing." I said as my face heated up so hot that I thought it may have been visible even through metal plating. "I see. So we'll start at square 1." Powerglide said simply.

We spent the next 2 hours in the sky. It was so much easier with a mentor, it was like night and day. Powerglide taught me the basics. I may not have been doing corkscrews, but it still felt amazing to have the air carrying me and the wind washing over me. Not to mention the amazing view I got of Octomotro from above.

"We'll save the fun stuff for tomorrow." He said after we'd landed and transformed. He went back to his quarters and I turned to the rec room. The good thing about flying; you avoid the dust. So thank god I didn't have to make another trip to the wash racks.

I walked into the rec room and ended up hanging out with the twins. We were bored, so we ended up racing on the deserted hiking trail. And just for the record, I won.


	69. Hailey's Mistake

Megatron

"YOU KEPT HER HERE FOR 2 WEEKS? HOW _**DARE**_ YOU DEFY ME! YOU WON'T LIVE TO REGRET THIS!" I roared in fury at Starscream. I grabbed his arm and wrenched it backwards. I felt the metal bend under my digits. The joint in his arm creaked and Starscream yelped pathetically. He whimpered, and even that was somehow screechy. I released his arm, kneed him in the cockpit, shattering it, then picked him up over my head and threw hit into the opposite wall. He lamely sat up as I stomped back up to him. I picked him up by the throat with my left servo, and gripped his wing with my right. "No!" Starscream bleated feebly. I smirked as I riped his wing clean off. Starscream screamed in agony.

Soundwave walked in at that point. "Lord Megatron, we found something." Soundwave stated. I dropped Starscream and wiped Starscream's leaked energon that covered my hands on the rag Soundwave handed me as I followed Soundwave out of the traitorous SIC's quarters.

I'd had Ravage sweep Starscream's room once I finally lifted his punishment. Ravage found a camera tape in a hidden compartment, and he smelled human all over the room, and on Starscream. The tape revealed that the human called Hailey had been hidden under Starscream's berth for two weeks.

Soundwave cued up a part of the video feed with only audio. Whatever was happening was out of the camera's field of vision. Bright light and screams of pain from the fleshling told me that Starscream was torturing her. She told him to search the internet. Whatever he found didn't please him, and pleased her immesely. "The idiot! There's references of us on the internet!" I said as I walked over to another monitor and pulled up the human search engine called "Google". I typed in my name, translated into english, and Information poured onto the screen. Where to find Megatron toys, pictures of me, and articles about me on fan databases. I followed at least 20 different links. I found that there were TV series, comic books, movies, and even a toy line of us. I muttered my thoughts aloud "That's how she knew us! This is all she's ever known! She was _useless_ the entire time! She will _pay_ for making a fool out of me!"


	70. Midtown Battle

Powerglide was in the middle of teaching me to loop-dee-loop when we got the comm from Prime. "Decepticons are attacking Octomotro. All Autobots, to the city!" "You heard Prime, to the city!" Powerglide called as he banked left toward town. I followed and we swooped down low to fly near the huge cluster of driverless cars with a red semi in the front.

We got there, and the Decepticons were standing around city hall. Dirge had his arm, up to the shoulder, stuck into the building. The destroyed roof had been ripped off and thrown, the white rubble that used to be the roof lay in the street about 30 yards away. Dirge pulled his arm out, with a struggling mayor in his fist. "The stupid fleshy kept running!" Dirge complained just before he noticed the mass of transforming vehicles. The mayor's security was already lying about, knocked out. (Most likely by a swift kick from one or more Decepticons.) A few Decepticons had their lower legs dented, suggesting that security had fired on them, needless to say, unsuccessfully.

Battle ensued, and Dirge was kept at the back, but he fired on the Autobots nonetheless. He Kept his fist balled about the struggling form of the mayor constantly. After 20 minutes and tons of damage to the city in the crossfire, I decided enough was enough. I ducked behind the shop I was using as over and crawled back. I went back until I could stand without being seen. I used a taller building a cover as I transformed into a plane and flew up until I was over the clouds. I used radar to find out where I was over the battle field. I was directly over the Autobots. I flew over the open space and over the cluster of Decepticons. I flew until I was directly over the lone figure way in the back, Dirge. I banked left and aligned myself as necessary. I nosed dived through my cover of clouds and rammed into Dirge. He stuck to my wing as I swooped back up. Purple energy bullets behind me told me that I'd been seen. I got hit several times but kept flying. Dirge clawed at my wing and ruined my paint job. "That's it, you're getting off!" I said as I barrel rolled and dumped Dirge off.

In his surprise, he loosened his grip on the mayor enough for the mayor to squirm out. Dirge fell and transformed just before he hit the ground. I dove after the mayor. Dirge curved up and strove for him as well. I reached him first and opened my cockpit. I turned so that the mayor went inside the cockpit, then turned sharply before Dirge rammed into me head-on. The pointed nose of his alt scratched me along the bottom of my plane mode.

The mayor was still freaking out. It felt odd as he moved around and pressed his hands to the glass of the cockpit. He was also the first person I'd ever given a ride to, so that didn't help. I ignored the movement and focused on survival. I projected my voice to sound in the cockpit only, and said "Mister Mayor, stay calm. I'll get you back on the ground as soon as I can." I dodged Dirge again as he asked "Wha? Who said that?" He braced his arms on the sides of the cockpit and squinted his eyes shut.

Dirge sent a missile in my direction. I did a sloppy loop-dee-loop to avoid it, further rattling the mayor. "I'm an Autobot. One of the aliens from the news a while ago." I explained as I dodged laserfire from below and from Dirge. _Oh Frag! It's a heat seeker!_ I cursed mentally as I saw the missile turn around and come back. I waited as it came back, and turned up at the last second. My curve began when the missile was about a foot from the front of my alt. The mayor was screaming up storm as I pulled up. The mayor watched through my silver tinted cockpit as the missile continued on its path and hit Dirge head on. Dirge spiraled toward Earth with smoke clouding around him.

I thought I was in the clear, but as I leveled out, that hope was dashed. Starscream, Skywarp, and Thundercracker rose up to meet me. It looked like Starscream's wing had been recently reattached. _Either somebot got him good, or Megs found out about Screamer keeping me as a pet. Most likely the second._ I thought as I flew through a barrage of purple energy bullets and dove toward the ground. I was hit many times, and I'd started leaking energon. I flew towards the ground and just before I hit the ground, I turned into a car. I landed on the ground with a thud. "Are you ok Mister Mayor?" I asked. I was afraid I'd crushed him. It was the first time I'd went from plane to car while moving, let alone with a passenger. "I'm fine. I thought you were a plane?" He was totally confused. "I am, but I'm a car too. And of course a robot." The mayor nodded, at a loss for words.

I drove as quickly as I could. I drove straight for the Autobots. They fired at the seekers, who were hot on my tail. I swerved around their feet and came to a stop in front of Ratchet, who had just finished giving Bluestreak a quick field patch on his arm. Bluestreak ran back to the battle. I opened my door. The mayor climbed out and staggered. I transformed into robot mode and stooped down to catch the mayor as he fell. I stood with the mayor on the palm of my hand and said "Got him."

Ratchet turned and jogged away. "Follow me." He called over his shoulder. I followed him, trying not to jostle the mayor and ignoring the pain of my wound. Ratchet ran way back behind the battle and opened Prime's abandoned trailer. I ran in with the mayor still on my hand. Inside, First Aid was conducting repairs that had to be immediate and that took longer than a standard field patch. Hoist and Seaspray were in the trailer waiting their turn and Windcharger was being patched. First Aid looked up from his work to where his mentor and I walked in.

Ratchet held out his hand. I placed the mayor on it. Ratchet spoke in a placating tone as he said "Mister Mayor, We're doing everything we can to drive the Decepticons out of the city. Until then, you'll have to remain here for your safety. I don't know why the Decepticons are targeting you, but you should be safe here." The mayor nodded. He looked to me and I gave him a weak smile. I had my hand against my side, trying to stop the energon from spilling. Ratchet stayed a minute to help First Aid with the repairs, including the injury to my side. Once I had been welded with a temporary fix, Ratchet and all the other fixed bots ran back into the fray. First Aid stayed to guard the mayor and wait for more severely injured bots. Ratchet got back to find that he already had someone to fix. Red Alert came supporting Inferno, who was limping with his arm around Red Alert's shoulder. Ratchet took Inferno and sent Red back to battle. Red gave an anxious look, but went back to fight.

I ran out to the front lines. I pulled out my blaster and got to work. The seekers were still advancing. They knew that the mayor was somewhere behind us, and they were trying to get there. I crouched behind a pawn shop and started to aim for Starscream. Rumble was apparently in the area, because the Earth started to tremble beneath us. The pawn shop in front of me collapsed. Once Rumble stopped, I stood to go find a new store. Rumble started again at the worst timing possible. I fell straight onto a statue of some guy on a horse holding a sword to the sky. The sword of the metal statue managed to find its way between my shoulder plating. When I stood, the sword broke off and stayed in my shoulder. I could no longer move my left arm whatsoever. My aim would be totally off without use of both my hands. I growled and wondered of I should go up anyways.

Just then the twins came hobbling over to my right. They were headed in Ratchet's direction. Sunstreaker was supporting Sideswipe. Sideswipe had energon running freely from his right thigh. Sunstreaker was unharmed, and kept looking back at the battle. I ran up to them and asked "What happened?" "Skywarp." Sunstreaker said. The tone in his voice suggested that he wanted to kill Skywarp personally. "Sunstreaker, I'll take Sideswipe. I'm damaged anyway. You go back and fight." Sunstreaker looked hesitant. "I won't let anything happen to him." I said. Even though they were twins, It was well known that Sunstreaker felt like Sideswipe's big brother. And Sideswipe was happily taking the role of the younger sibling. Sunstreaker was reluctant to leave his brother's side until he knew he was going to be alright. "It's ok bro, I'll be fine. Go slag that fragger Skywarp for me." Sideswipe told his brother. Sunstreaker finally relinquished his brother with a last uneasy glance. He ran off to fight.

Sideswipe stood to my left and slung his arm around my shoulders. I used my right hand, my good one, to hold Sideswipe's wrist. He leaned on me heavily as we walked over to Ratchet. Or rather, I walked, Sideswipe limped.

Ratchet patched Sideswipe quickly and he ran off to find and join his brother. "You just have horrible luck today, don't you?" Ratchet said as he switched his hand to plier mode and started to remove the golden sword. "The second time was bad luck, the first time was just me being stupid." I said, pausing to grit my dentas every time he yanked. He pulled out the sword in a flurry of sparks. I winced as he started to weld a broken energon line. "Maybe so, but your stupidity paid off. Now get back out there." Ratchet said. I sprang up and ran off.

20 minutes later, The Decepticons _finally_ flew away. The mayor went back to his destroyed City Hall steps. He looked around at the trashed city. It was devoid of humans, they'd all been evacuated when the 'Cons first arrived. As the population started to trickle back in, he started to complain. "Look at my city! It will take years to fix this! And we don't _nearly_ have the funds!" He whined to no one in particular. Optimus walked over and got on one knee, as to see the fuming mayor better. "The other Autobots and I will supply the labor. All that is required of you is to provide the supplies. Do you have the funds for that?" The mayor contemplated then said "It would mean that we aren't making that new park, but yes. Labor is most of the cost of any construction project." "Not to mention, we'll probably be faster." Ratchet added. The mayor wrung his hands and nodded. He was fine fuming when no one was around, but he didn't seem to want to make eye contact with anybot. Especially Optimus. He kept glancing at me though. He probably liked me since I saved him. I stood off to the side, watching him and Optimus. Optimus asked "How long will it take to acquire the supplies?" The mayor started twiddling his thumbs in thought and about a minute later, he muttered "About a week, maybe? I have no idea. It really depends on the company." "An Autobot will stop here each day to see if the supplies are here. Once they are, we'll start repair immediately. We will take responsibility for our actions and clean the mess we made." Optimus said.

Optimus stood up (much to the mayor's relief) and called "Autobots, transform and roll for home." We gladly obliged and got repaired back at the Ark.


	71. Trouble Comes in Small Packages

I was hanging out at the Ark. My mom was at home taking a nap, which she earned since she went in to work at 3 in the morning. My dad was also at home, but he was installing a shelf in the kitchen. Taylor was at her best friend Megan's house, as she always was on Friday. So I had gone to the Ark. I spent the day finishing off the small amount of homework I had, then frittering the hours away on Facebook and with the Autobots until dinner. I went home but was back at the Ark afterwards since it had been a while since the last time I stayed the night at the Ark. I hung out with Bee until he got tired at about 8. Then I was with the twins until 10. I went to my room and was asleep quickly, even though my bed was a big pillow on top of a metal berth with a pillow and blanket from the guest room at home.

I awoke the next morning some time around 7:30. My parents probably would've woken me up at 7. I was the night owl of my family. So said everyone else in my family anyway. Sometimes I would stay up and watch YouTube until around 11 on my iPod Touch under the covers. My dad would sometimes be in the office next to my room. He would stay up _much_ longer than me. And he'd fall asleep watching TV the next day. Right, and _I'm_ the night owl.

Anyway, I woke up at about 7:30 and brushed my hair and teeth. I got dressed in a red Coca-Cola T-shirt and dark wash skinny jeans. I put on my blue transformers jacket, black fedora, and checkered Vans. Now that I was presentable I went out to the rec room. I sat up on the table leaning against a wall. I chatted with Bee, the twins, and Hound. They sipped energon while I ate a granola bar, apple, and a banana.  
After breakfast The twins had patrol and Hound had monitor duty. Bee had his off time so I hung out with him. We decided to go see what or resident inventor was up to.

As soon as we reached the lab we heard strange noises from behind the shut door. Wheeljack burst out the door and bumped straight into Bee. We all ended up in a huge heap. I fell off Bee's shoulder and ended up sandwiched between Bee's arm and Wheeljack's shoulder. Bee was on top with one leg pinned under Wheeljack. Bee had ended up closer to the door since they had rolled over each other across the hall. It was a wonder I hadn't been squished. Wheeljack didn't even have a chance to explain himself before an explosion to put Michael Bay to shame resounded from the lab.


	72. Here We Go

My ears rang from the explosion and debris fell on me where I clearly remembered a bot being a minute ago. There was no longer any pressure on top of me. When the smoke cleared I saw I was still on top of Wheeljack, but Bee's arm was no longer sandwiching me. "Where's Bee?" I asked, sitting up. "Here." came the weak reply. Bee was draped across my knee. I had been leaning back on my hands with one leg extended and the one with Bee on it bent. Bee dangled and reminded me of a lost kite. I straightened my leg and he stood. We stood and got off Wheeljack. Wheeljack sat up and bent one leg, draping an arm over it and looking down at us.

"What happened?" I asked looking up to Wheeljack. He cycled air through his vents and said "I was in need of parts, so I started to dismantle old failed projects. I found this one. 2 conduits were fused. I separated them and it went explosive. I was planning on running out of the room and shutting the doors, but I bumped into you two. I guess we know what the mystery invention was supposed to be, huh?" "A shrink ray." I said as I nodded.

"What are we gonna do?" Bee asked from the floor. Even I had to look down at him now. He was only 4 inches tall. "I'll have to fix that invention. Well, what's left of it." Wheeljack stated. "It could've been worse." I said, trying to be optimistic. "How so?" Bee asked from the ground. "I could've been the one effected. If it changed you to less than half a foot tall, I would've been microscopic." I explained. "Very true." Bee said, nodding. "Well. I think the escapade earns a trip to Prime." Wheeljack said, standing. I picked up Bee gently. He sat on my palm with his feet dangling and Wheeljack picked me up. I rode on Wheeljack's shoulder.

We hadn't been going long when Bee said "You know, I've always kinda wanted to try riding on someone's shoulder..." "Knock yourself out." I said as I smiled and raised Bee to my shoulder height. He climbed on to my shoulder and had to hold my ear to keep from falling over. I laughed as he comically tried to swat my hair out of the way. When I sat on somebot's shoulder, I could sit comfortably because their shoulders are conveniently flat, unlike my rounded ones.

By this time we'd reached Optimus' office. Wheeljack knocked and Optimus' voice sounded from within saying "Come in." Wheeljack hit the button to open the door and stepped inside. Optimus was sitting at his desk. He set down a datapad and said "What brings you two here?" "Actually, It's three Prime." I said as I gestured to my shoulder. Bee waved and said "Hey there boss bot."

Obviously, Optimus asked for an explanation and Wheeljack supplied it. Optimus scratched his chin and thought for a minute. He looked up to Wheeljack and said "How long will it take to fix Bumblebee?" "Well, I'm not sure. I haven't seen what became of the lab yet. I just came here." Wheeljack answered. "If you're worried about my duties, I can still perform them." Bee offered from his perch. "I'm not sure a bug small enough to fit in the palm of a human's hand would do so well on the road." I said. "Very true. You'd be crushed." Optimus agreed. "Or some little kid would pick you up and take you home." I added. "Ok, so no patrol. I can still do monitor duty though." Bee revised. "You can give it a go." Optimus said. "I'm scheduled to go in half an hour anyways. I can take a longer shift so someone can cover my patrols." Bee offered. "Go now, I'll get someone to do your patrol. But if you have problems-" Optimus started. "I won't have any problems." Bee said, cutting off Optimus.

Bee had been placed back on the ground. I went back with Wheeljack to see what befell the lab.

On the work bench (blackened of course) sat the remnants of the shrink ray. It was shaped like a gun and laying on its side. The side facing up was blown out. The metal curled outward and the inside was completely black. There were cooled embers on the surrounding area on the table. Those bits probably used to be part of the exploded ray. When it exploded, it had fired once, causing Bee to shrink. Wheeljack and I started to clean up and find salvageable parts.

_Meanwhile..._

Bumblebee

I walked through the deserted halls of the Ark. I met no one and once I reached the monitor room I walked in the huge door, thank Primus it was open. Inferno, Red Alert, and Gears had monitor duty just then. I was so small that they didn't notice my entrance. I already saw I had a problem. The controls were Autobot sized. _Oh boy... Wait! I can climb the ladder meant for humans and just step on the buttons._ I resolved. I stepped up to the ladder. It was _human_ sized and it was _still_ too big for me. I sighed as I started to struggle up the ladder. The other bots in the room finally heard me and turned their heads to the source of the noise. I scrambled on top of the control panel and Inferno said "What happened?" with a shocked expression. The other two wore facial expression very similar. "Long story short, Wheeljack." I said, shrugging. All 3 nodded.

For the next hour I ran across the control panel and stepped on buttons as needed. By the end I was pretty tired. If I was human, I would've been panting.

I slid down the ladder and tried to go to my quarters. I nearly got stepped on on my way there. Jazz was the one who'd almost killed me, and he of course apologized _profusely_. I kept telling him to not worry about it. He was used to looking for humans, not 4 inch tall Autobots. Once I'd finally made it to my door, I couldn't even go inside since I couldn't reach the controls. I groaned and went to see Optimus.

I met Hailey on my way there. She stopped and said "Hey Bee. How's it going?" "Not so good. I almost got stepped on, and I can't even get into my room." I frowned and looked at the ground. "You've had a rough day huh? I assume you were going to Optimus?" Hailey said sympathetically. I nodded as I looked back up at her. She stooped and put her hand on the floor palm up. I climbed on and she smoothly lifted me up. She raised me to her shoulder and I quickly scrambled on. I held her audio- err, ear for support as she put her hand down and walked in the direction of Optimus' office.

When we reached the big door Hailey knocked and called "Hey Optimus, you in there? It's Hailey." A few seconds later the door swooshed open and Optimus stood in the door frame. "Come in. What brings you here? Or should I say you _two_." Optimus said gesturing to the inside of the room, he added the last part as he noticed me. I was a bit annoyed for a moment, but then I remembered how miniscule I was.

Hailey stepped past Optimus into the room. He politely picked her up and set her on the desk. She sat and looked to Optimus. She still had to look up, even though he was now sitting in his chair next to the desk. "Bee didn't have such a good day today." Hailey said. "Yeah. Monitor duty was kinda difficult." I admitted. "Not to mention I almost got stepped on. Jazz apologized for a minute straight." I continued. Optimus nodded. "I knew something like that would happen. I'm just happy you're uninjured." Optimus said. "I can't even get into my room. The controls are too high." I stated. "Welcome to my world." Hailey said sarcastically. That's why she'd had to add the "It's Hailey." part when she had knocked. She couldn't open any door either. Unless she used her blaster anyways. But that's just rude.

"If he's having trouble here, what about my place?" Hailey asked of Optimus after a minute. "What do you mean?" Optimus inquired, raising an optic ridge. "I mean, why not take him to my house? It's still not his size, but at least he won't be crushed." "Hmm... Bumblebee? What do you think?" I thought for a moment. _One close call is enough for me._ I said mentally. "I like the idea, it could be fun! But what about my duties?" "You're relieved." Optimus said. "Great! It's just about time for me to get home anyways. You get to watch Castle with us!" Hailey said happily.


	73. Weekend with a Transformer Part 1

Mirage gave Bee and I a ride home. I walked up to the door with Bee on my shoulder. I stopped just before I opened the door. I waved goodbye to Mirage as he sped off, and noticed out of the corner of my eye that Bee was doing the same. Once Mirage was gone I took Bee off my shoulder. "Let's surprise my parents." I said with an evil smile. Bee nodded. I hid him behind my back. He clung to the back of my jacket and I put my arms down at my sides, as I normally would. I walked in and greeted my parents as if nothing was weird. "Hey mom, can I ask you something?" I said as I reached behind my back and nudged Bee up while my parents turned away from plating dinner and looked at me, since I was the most interesting thing going on, apparently. "Yes, Honey?" Mom said. Bee reached my shoulder and leaned way out into the open, holding my ear, so as to not fall. "Can we keep him?" I asked with a huge smile. Bee waved with his free hand. My whole family looked confused, but my dad was the first to speak. "What happened? I'm pretty sure you use to be a bit taller." "Not by much, but yes." I said. Bee flicked the side of my head. "I'm kidding, Bee! Anyways, Wheeljack accidentally caused this. Bee is having trouble at the Ark, so I offered for him to stay here." I finished. "Well, everything is huge for us, so I can only imagine how difficult it would be for him. Of course he can stay." mom said.

While my parents finished plating the dinner, I went out to the front yard. I picked up the energon cube maker that Wheeljack had made especially for me and set it to make a cube. It hummed as it collected the solar energy required as I held it in the last beams of sunlight. "This should be about the right size, right?" I asked Bee, who still sat on my shoulder. "It'll be close enough." Be said as he shrugged. The machine quickly popped out a miniature cube. I carried it back inside and set the machine back in its place on the doorstep.

When I walked inside, dinner was ready. Taylor and I sat at the coffee table, mom was in her chair with a TV tray, and dad was on the couch with a TV tray. Bee decided to sit on the table in front of mine and Taylor's dishes. He leaned against the wicker basket which was on top of about 10 magazines that held the various remotes, outdated and otherwise. (ex: DVD player, VCR, old TV remotes, CD player etc.) Dad held the current TV remote an cued up the episode of Castle we had recorded on DVR. We all turned our heads way up to the plasma screen TV. It rested on top of the entertainment center that held all our DVDs and video games. It was something given to us as a gift and it looked extremely out of place in the small room, but we were happy with it nonetheless.

The recording started and dad fast forwarded through all the commercials until the actual show started. Bee freaked out almost immediately when he saw the dead body on the huge TV screen. Dad paused and we all turned to the miniature minibot. "Bee, what's wrong?" I asked. "He's _dead_!" Bee said, as if that would explain everything as he pointed to the dead man on the screen. Bee pulled his hand back as if he was worried about getting too close to the man, who had bullet holes in his back and a red stain on his shirt and on the asphalt around him. "He's not really dead!" I explained. "What?" Bee tore his optics from the screen to look back at me, confusion plainly written on his features. "It's an actor. None of this is real." my dad said. Bee turned to him and said "But there's blood... and bullet holes..." "All fake. It's just make up and special effects. Everyone who acted in the show is alive and well." dad said in a soothing tone. Bee nodded. "Do you want to watch a different show?" mom asked. "Nah. I'm good. Go on." Bee said. We finished the show without further incident.

After dinner, Bee and I went upstairs and goofed off in my room. Mom came in at 8:30. "Time to get ready for bed, guys." She announced. Bee and I looked down at her from on top of my bunk bed. "But mom, it's Saturday night! And I have a friend over!" I reasoned. "Ok. But lights out by 10." Mom conceded. "Ok." I said as I crawled back over to my spot and we finished our activity.

At 9:45 we finally got ready for bed. I was ready (teeth brushed, PJs on, etc.) by 9:55. Bee didn't have to do anything. I walked into the guest room and pulled out a clean pillow and a fresh fluffy towel. I put the pillow on my desk. I picked Bee off the floor and set him on the desk. Bee crawled onto the pillow as I draped the towel over him. As Bee got comfortable, I climbed the ladder to my bed. Just before I got on the mattress, I looked to the desk. Seeing that Bee was situated, I flipped the switch with my toes. I crawled into place. I snuggled down into my blankets and said "Night, Bee." "Goodnight, Hailey." came Bee's reply. We both fell asleep just as the digital clock switched to show 10:00 in glowing green digits.

* * *

Bumblebee

I woke up to a pleasant feeling. Someone was tracing around the base of one of the horns on my helm. Those are very sensitive, so it felt pretty nice. Without even thinking, my internal systems made a whirring noise which almost sounded like purring. I opened my optics and stopped the noise to be met with Hailey's mom's face. "Good morning, Bumblebee." Jan said quietly. "Good morning." I said as I sat up on one elbow. "What was that for?" I asked. "It's better than my husband's wake up call." Jan responded in a whisper.

I looked past Jan and saw that Hailey was still asleep. She was sleeping with her head where her feet were supposed to go. One arm was shoved under her pillow, and the other was hanging over the side of her bed. One leg was straight, with the toes barely poking out from under the covers, and the other leg was bent so that the foot was against her other leg. Her face was facing the wall, away from Jan and I. She had a nasty case of bed head.

Then Hailey's dad walked in. He walked up to the side of the bed. "Robert Pierre!" Jan whispered. "Ooh. You used the middle name. I'm in trouble." Robert said, smiling. "Don't wake your daughter like that." Jan chided. Robert ignored her, and turned back to the bed with his smile widening.

Hailey had slept through all this, and therefore screamed when her dad grabbed her. She clutched at the mattress as her dad tried to pull her off. When she saw it was her dad, she started laughing, but didn't let go of the mattress. Robert started laughing too as he adjusted his grip and tickled her. Hailey instantly let go and curled up into a ball. Robert set her on the ground, with her blankets still on, on her white carpeted floor. Both parents walked out of the room smiling. Hailey shook her fist at her dad, then threw her blankets and pillow in a bundle back onto the top bunk and walked over to me shaking her head and smiling. She picked me up and said "C'mon. Let's go watch some cartoons."


	74. Weekend with a Transformer Part 2

After breakfast (we had pancakes) I sat with Bee in front of the TV. I laid on the couch and had a pillow pulled against my midsection as I lay with my head on another pillow against the arm rest. Bee was leaning against the pillow which was against myself. Bee moved ever so slightly as I breathed. I remembered something that mom had told me in the kitchen while we made pancakes. (Dad cooked and mom got dishes out. I carried butter, syrup, etc. out to the table and Taylor entertained Bee and got him an energon cube.) While he was still looking up to the screen, I moved my hand and started to lightly trace around the base of his horn. Within seconds he was purring. I turned my head to my mom in the dining room, she was doing a sudoku puzzle, and said 'You're right! He _does_ purr!" Bee smiled good-naturedly, but swatted my hand away, embarrassed. I laughed a bit and said "Let's go back upstairs, shall we?" I carted Bee upstairs. While my computer warmed up, I slipped into the bathroom to change out of my PJs. I emerged with a T-shirt and jeans on and without bed head. I started to fritter on YouTube, showing Bee funny videos. I'd done this plenty of times at the Ark, but my favorites list was so long that I still had ones he hadn't seen. I also followed the "related videos" links to discover new videos to add to the ever-growing list.

Bumblebee

Hailey was currently showing me a clip from G1. It was actually me trying to water ski with Seaspray and faceplanting on the water. While I watched the video, I laughed with her, but I felt the same way I did anytime I watched anything G1. Dejavu, as I believe humans call it. The entire base felt the same dejavu when they watched G1, but we didn't share that with Hailey. Seasons 1 and 2 were oddly familiar, but seasons 3 and 4 were totally foreign. We ignored the odd feeling for the most part, and just enjoyed the cartoon.

After half an hour of YouTube, Hailey remembered "Oh, I took a screenshot from this video that's just so perfect! It would totally belong on ! It's on my iPod. Speaking of which, where is my iPod?" She left the desk and searched her backpack. She searched the top of her dresser and checked her jacket pockets. She looked like she'd remembered something. She left the room and called down the stairs "Taylor! Did you borrow my iPod?" "Yeah." came the distracted reply. "Where is it?" Hailey called. I heard Taylor pause her game and she walked back into the room in front of Hailey. She kneeled in front of her bed and pulled away her dirty shirt from yesterday so reveal Hailey's iPod sitting screen-up on the floor. Hailey started yelling at Taylor. "It's bad enough you take my stuff without asking, now you're trying to break it too? And under your dirty laundry nonetheless!" "Hey! You weren't using it!" Taylor shot back. Hailey snatched her iPod from Taylor's hand and yelled "You're lucky it didn't get stepped on!" I didn't listen any further. I couldn't stop imagining Hailey and Taylor as the Lambo twins. Hailey made a perfect possessive Sunstreaker, and Taylor made the perfect naïve Sideswipe. Slap some yellow plating on Hailey and some red on Taylor, and you may not know who's who. I smiled at the thought. "What?" Hailey asked, turning away from the bickering. "Nothing. Just thinking how much you two are like the Lambo twins." Hailey seemed to understand the connection and looked sorry. "Sorry Tay. I shouldn't have snapped at ya. Just _ask_ next time, ok? And don't leave it on the floor." Hailey said. "Ok. Will do." Taylor said. The younger sibling made her exit.

* * *

Hailey

After dinner, I decided we should go swimming. Bee could actually fit in the pool now, it was heated at this time of year, and since it was nighttime no one would be there. Mom and dad agreed, but said I'd better hurry. It was already 8:30 and the pool closed at 10:00. I got dressed in a teal bathing suit top and teal board shorts with a green Hawaiian flower on the end of the left leg. The top covered me well and the back was open to the bottom of my shoulder blades. Fabric draped down to cover my entire midsection.

I dug a miniature inner-tube out from the closet. I threw the Barbie that was inside it back in the closet. As you can probably tell, it's kinda cluttered in there. We have to go through that someday... But now was not time for tidying. Now was time for getting wet!

I grabbed the pool key and ran out. Bee drove behind me in vehicle mode on the way there. I used the pool key to open the black metal gate and walked in after Bee. Bee transformed on the edge of the pool, which was devoid of swimmers, as I'd expected. Bee poked the surface of the water, sending ripples across the wide pool.

I walked to the deep end and dived in. The water was definitely cold, but it was bearable. Bee looked across the surface of the water, watching my ripples, as I saw from under the glassy surface of the water. I quickly swam to the side of the pool. In one swift movement I used one hand to drag in the very distracted Bumblebee. I smiled at Bee under the water, but had to go up for air. When I came back down a few seconds later, I saw that Bee had sunk to the bottom like a rock. _Not surprising_. I thought. I scrambled over the side of the pool, and came back with the Barbie inner-tube. I scooped Bee from the bottom of the pool and deposited him in it. He fit pretty well in the pink flower design floaty. He paddled after me as I swam across the pool, and often dropped out of the tube to run along the pool bottom. _Ah, the advantages of not having to breathe_. I thought with jealousy. We left the pool when the light went out at 10:00 and went home.

Bumblebee

Hailey was taking a shower. I sat in her room, still sitting on the towel I'd been given to dry off with. Jan walked in looking tired. "Bee, It's Sunday. That means she has school tomorrow, so don't keep her up too late. Knowing her, she'll want to stay up as long as you do, so please go to bed by midnight." Jan said. "Yes, of course." I replied obediently. Jan nodded and called "Goodnight." Over her shoulder as she disappeared down the hall. "Goodnight!" I called after her.

Hailey emerged shortly after that. We messed around on her iPod and on the computer until 11:40. Hailey's eyelids started to droop. She'd stayed up late last night with me as well, so she needed to sleep. "Let's go to bed." I said. Hailey nodded and made no argument. She went up top her top bunk and I settled into my bed on the desk. We chatted for another 20 minutes and were getting pretty drowsy. Oddly enough, her bright blue eyes glowed slightly in the inky blackness of the night. When I commented on it, she said she was unaware of the fact. "You just get weirder and weirder, don't ya?" I asked. Hailey laughed lightly as she finally fell asleep.


	75. If You Take a Bee To School

((A/N: Well, I just want to announce that one of my pen pals appears in this chapter! :D Bobby Joe in the story is NetNaviDarko415. Ok, I'll shut up now.))

* * *

"Well Bee, back to school for me." I told the mini transformer. He seemed disappointed. "What am I supposed to do all day?" he asked. "I dunno. What's ours is yours. I'm sure you'll find something." I got ready for school. At the end, I was in a rush. I slung my backpack over my shoulder and ran out the door. Taylor sat in the back seat with me and my dad sat in the drivers seat. We sped off to Matrix high, unaware of our stowaway.

Bumblebee

I knew I was going to be bored out of my processor. A stupid idea came to me. I was mulling it over when I heard Hailey sprinting up the stairs. It was now or never. I threw caution to the wind and dove into Hailey's unzipped backpack. I tucked myself under her pencil pouch to stay out of sight, she might've kicked me out if she saw me. She zipped the bag. I felt successful, but that was brief.

She swung the bag off the ground suddenly, and I knocked hard into her agenda book when the bag came in contact with her spine. The bag bounced as she ran down the stairs. She dropped the bag to put on her shoes, then swung it onto her back again. _Primus! Hailey's rough with her bag! _I thought as I was jostled on the way to the car. _Maybe this wasn't such a good idea._ I reflected as I slammed onto the ground as Hailey dropped her bag on the floor of the car.

I rubbed my sore helm as I tried to think of a way to save myself from being battered further. I ended up pushing Hailey's reading book to the left and her pencil pouch to the right and situating myself between them. Now if she dropped her backpack on its front, I wouldn't get crushed by her binder. Then I sat and wondered when to make myself known. The sooner, the better.

Hailey

I jumped out of the car and power walked to my locker. I shoved my math textbook into my backpack none too gently. God how I hated that book. I didn't need it until 3rd period, but I had to carry it around all morning. My science binder quickly joined the accursed book in my bag. I slammed my locker shut and jogged off to first period: computer applications.

The class was extremely easy, but oh so _boring_. The class was required to graduate since Matrix high was a magnet school for information technology and the arts. Most people took it in freshman year, like me, but others procrastinated it. The girl in the seat to my back left was an example of that. Her name was Bobby Joe. I didn't know her all that well, but she seemed pretty nice. Other than Bobby, I was surrounded by freshmen. Madison (aka Madi) was directly behind me, Cassidy was to my right, and Jamie was to my left. Bobby was short and pale. She had short brown hair, black rectangular glasses, and she wore a black Autobot logo sweatshirt, loose jeans, black Vans, and black gloves with the fingers cut off. Madi was about my height. She had short blonde hair and she had a shirt with a curly-que design, skinny jeans, and gray Converse. Jamie was slightly shorter than me. She had short brown hair with faded blue streaks, a striped shirt with a happy face on it, skinny jeans, and black Converse. Cassidy was an inch shorter than me, had a latin complexion, and long brown hair. She wore a pink T-shirt, skinny jeans, and dark pink Converse.

We all sat in front of our individual computers, listening to the teacher babble about today's assignments. No one could ever remember a word she said, and she projected it on the board anyway. Unfortunately, she didn't turn on the projector until _after_ she talked our ears off. So most people ignored her.

She never noticed what any of us were doing, except 2 things. Her pet peeves; texting and talking. If you were passing notes, doing origami, writing on your hands with ball-point pen, she couldn't care less. If you even took your phone out of your pocket or whispered inaudibly to your neighbor, she pounced on you in seconds. She was scary like that. Ms. Swill, the teacher, would make her daily spiel, then sit at her desk in the back of the class and either grade or play solitaire.

I reached down into my backpack to retrieve my "skin pen" which I always used to write song lyrics, reminders, and doodles all over my hands with. I yelped when I felt something grip my pinky. I yanked my hand back instinctively. When I looked up, I saw that every set of eyes in the room were set on me. Ms. Swill looked pretty annoyed. "Sorry, I stabbed myself with a pencil." I quickly lied, blushing like mad.

Ms. Swill continued with her lecture and everyone went back to their activities. I brought my backpack under my desk and opened it to look inside. When I saw my miniature robot friend in the bag, I had to restrain from yelling at him for being so stupid. His voice came over my comm saying "Nice to see you too." in response to my annoyed expression.

I noticed that his leg was pinned under my thick math textbook. _I always knew that was an evil book. _I thought bitterly as I lifted it off his leg. I pulled my hand out, and saw that Bee was attached to it. He had wrapped his arms around my wrist. I shoved my hand into the desk (It had a space for textbooks) and looked to see if anyone saw.

Bee's eyes brightened in curiosity, the danger he was in hadn't sunk in yet. This was a perfect opportunity to reveal the fact that I hung out with transformers. We no longer had to worry about discovery of them, everyone already knew they existed thanks to the news. If he was found, fangirls would be all over him. And the last thing I wanted was those Sector 7 goons on me again. Bee didn't realize that this was _Ms. Swill_. That was the worst scenario. He'd get shoved into the confiscated drawer, and she didn't give the stuff in there back until Friday. It was Monday, I didn't think Bee would do so well being stuck in drawer for 5 days straight.

Ms. Swill finished finally. She turned down the lights, so that you couldn't see any doodling paper, and she could see the light of a cell phone. It was her way of forcing you into doing your work.

I looked around frantically. Bobby, Cassidy, Jamie, and Madi were all looking at me. Obviously, they'd seen. I cursed Bee's stupid idea.

Unknown to me, Ms. Swill noticed a soft blue light from my desk. That was the light from Bee's curious optics, but she assumed it was a cell phone. She started to stump over to my desk. Ms. Swill always checked desks and backpacks, so both those hiding places were out of the question. Bobby saw Bee inside my desk, and Ms. Swill advancing. Bobby kicked over her backpack and nudged it forward. Bee jumped out of the desk and slid down my shin like a fire pole. He sprinted into Bobby's black backpack. Bobby sat it upright and zipped it most of the way. She pulled the bag behind her chair, as far from Ms. Swill's sight as possible. Bee dimmed his optics and waited silently.

I read the projector screen and typed in today's assignments, as I was supposed to. Ms. Swill strode up and held out her hand. "Phone." She said simply. "What?" I asked, playing dumb. "Where is your phone?" "In my backpack, turned off." "Prove it." I reached under the desk and dragged out my bag. I opened the front pocket and brought out my phone. I displayed it to Ms. Swills, opening it and punching a couple number keys. "Off." I said. I lowered the phone. She hesitated a minute, but went back to her desk. She abandoned her game of solitaire and watched me. Since she was watching me so closely, Bee couldn't come back.

Once the class finally ended Bobby met me outside. We walked to the girls bathroom followed by Cassidy, Jamie, and Madi. We went to the bad one. Let me explain that a bit. Matrix high was in California, meaning earthquakes happened quite a bit. When the last big one hit, one of the 2 girls bathrooms was destroyed. It was rebuilt. The old, unrepaired bathroom was the bad one. The repaired one was the good one. The new one had the kind of hand dryers where you stick your hand underneath and it blows them dry. The bad one had cheap paper towels, with dispensers that always got stuck. Little things like that, but girls being girls, no one was in the bad bathroom.

Bobby dug around in her backpack and pulled out Bee. She deposited him on my palm. "I believe this is yours." she said as Bee quickly jumped onto my hand. I set him on my shoulder. "Yes, he is." "What is that?" Cassidy asked, gesturing to the alien currently resting on my shoulder. "His name is Bumblebee. I'd love to explain, but I know we've all got to get to class. Meet me here at the start of lunch and I'll explain everything. Oh. And another thing. Bee here is to be our little secret, ok?" They all nodded and they left to their respective classes.

Once they were gone, I had to think of what to do with Bee. "Why are you even _here_! You see why I wanted to leave you home?" I asked. "I didn't want to be alone." Bee said sheepishly shrugging. "What about my dad?" "He'd be cooped up in his office, working. Who's left? Cassidy?" " I guess the dog wouldn't be such a great companion huh? What do with you now though?..." Bee looked about my person. He saw a spot and slipped into it. He rested in my hood, and situated my hair as a curtain. "Ok, as far as communication goes, you'll use your comm, and I'll write to you ok?" I asked. "Fine by me." Bee replied. I jogged to my next class, making it in seconds before the bell. _Today's gonna be interesting to say the least._ I thought as I took my seat in science class.


	76. I Hope You're Happy, Bee

((A/N: Yeah, I'm being annoying again. My other pen pal makes an appearance in this chapter. Toni in the story is Lightning Prime. Ok, back to the fanfic.))

* * *

As soon as science class started, I pulled out an old assignment from health class, which I'd taken last semester, and flipped it over onto the back which was blank. "What class is this?" Bee asked via comm. "College Prep Earth Science, Grade 9." I wrote on the paper in quick cursive. Bee couldn't read english all that well (nobot could) so it took a minute to decipher.

Class started and Bee started to get restless after about 10 minutes and slipped back off my shoulder and into my hood. He started to squirm in the blue fabric of my hood after an additional 10 minutes. I was thankful that I was in the back of the class, so no one would see my hood moving. _I'll have to fix this after class._ I thought. _But how do you entertain a bored Autobot? _

I had an idea and grabbed my iPod earbuds, which hung from the collar of my shirt (I had the cord threaded under my shirt and the iPod in my pocket). I put the earbuds into the hood. Bee grabbed them and scrambled back up onto my shoulder to see my written response as he asked "What're these for?" "I'll turn on some music for you. Then you'll be a little less bored." I jotted down. While he read, I pulled my iPod out under the desk and quickly put on "The Ballad of Mona Lisa" By Panic! At The Disco. Bee settled back into the hood, apparently content.

We took notes on the ocean currents that day. Once class was about to get out, everyone packed their stuff and left the second the bell rang. I headed for the "bad bathroom" to fix Bee's position.

On my way there, two jerky guys were sprinting through the halls. The first one brushed against me, making me step back into the girl to my left. The second barreled into me, he stumbled, shouted "Sorry!" over his shoulder, and kept going after his friend. I stood up from the ground. To say I was miffed was an understatement. But my annoyance died away quickly when I realized that Bee was no longer in my hood.

Bumblebee

I clattered to the floor painfully. The next nanoclik I was kicked by someone, resulting in me skidding on my back down the hallway. I sat up and was kicked again. I landed in a corner between a locker and the concrete wall. I made a painfully hollow thud on the beat up locker. I had ended up with my aft over my head. I righted myself and pressed into the corner, looking for Hailey. When a stranger seemed to be coming straight for me, I panicked and transformed. I tried to zip away, but she stopped me with her hand. She picked me up and said "I won't hurt you. I'm returning you to your friend." I stilled as she walked through the crowd, weaving through the stream of students as if she knew where she was going. I quickly spotted Hailey's black fedora.

Hailey

My eyes darted over the ground, looking for a streak of yellow. I spun around quickly when someone tapped my shoulder. The stranger flinched back either because of how fast I turned, or because my black and white checkered backpack almost struck her midsection.

She was African american, and even though she had her long brown hair covering her right eye, I could tell she was not emo. She wore a black crystal studded headband under her long bangs. She wore a black jacket and blue denim jeans. Her sneakers were black and red and she wore was a green crystal necklace. Her shirt was red with a black Autobot logo. (Autobot logo merchandise was becoming quite popular, now that everyone knew they were real. People flocked to Octomotro to see if they could get a glimpse of the famous aliens. Stupidly enough, Decepticon logo stuff was also in demand.)

She held up her hand, and when she uncurled her dark fingers, a miniature yellow bug sat on her hand. I plucked Bee from her palm as she said "I believe this is yours." I encased Bee in my own digits and said "Come here, I need to talk to you in private." She followed me through the "bad bathroom" doors. Once the door to the old portable shut I said "Thanks a lot." I opened my hand so that Bee could transform and perch on my shoulder. "So he's one of the Autobots right?" the stranger asked. "Yes. My designation is Bumblebee." Bee stated formally. "I'm Toni." the stranger said. "I'm Hailey. Meet me here a lunch. Unfortunately, you aren't the only one to see my friend here. So I'll explain then." I said. "See ya then." Toni said with a smile as she walked out.

"Ok, now what to do with you." I said to Bee. "Not the hood again, obviously." Bee said. "No kidding. How about a pocket?" "Jacket pocket?" "I think we learned our lesson with loose fits." "What about your jeans pocket?" "Wouldn't that be a tight fit?" "Nah, you're not wearing skinny jeans today. Plus, your iPod Touch fits." "True." I bundled up my iPod and put it in my backpack. Be transformed and I gently put him in my pocket. Bee had enough room to transform again and poke his helm out. He could still duck back into the pocket to hide, if necessary.

I walked to my locker quickly. Walking moved Bee, but it didn't jostle him too bad. I sprinted to class and I was still a few seconds late, but the teacher let it slide. The next two periods passed without incident. Bee sat in my backpack playing with my iPod during class and rode in my pocket during passing period.

Then the moment of truth came: Lunch.


	77. Visiting

I walked into the "bad bathroom" to find Bobby, Toni, Jamie, Madi, and Cassidy waiting. The smelly old portable was becoming far too familiar. We walked out of the bathroom and out onto the field. (At Matrix High, you ate wherever. There was no lunch area.)

We leaned against the main office building with me against the wall and the other making an arc around me. I pulled Bee out of my pocket and sat him on my knee as I pulled out my lunch. I also dug into my backpack an pulled out a small box. Out of the box I pulled a mini energon cube, the kind I drank. I handed the cube to bee and put the box back in my bag. "So you planned on him being here then?" Madi asked, pointing at the glowing cube. Bee slipped off my knee and sat against the wall with me, as to be less noticeable as I said "No. I have that because I actually have it in case of an emergency. I actually need that stuff thanks to a run-in with the 'Cons. It's also the reason for these." I pointed to my unnaturally bright blue eyes." "I noticed that, I figured that it was colored contacts." Jamie said. "Nope. They glow too." I said. "Cool!" Toni commented. I went on to explain how I'd met the Autobots, and who they were. Bee often piped up to add details or tell certain parts of the story from his point of view. By the time lunch ended, I'd only gotten through explaining who the Autobots were, and how we'd met. The bell rang and I told my new friends "Ok, call your parents and tell that you're coming to my house, or something like that. I'll take you to the Ark today. You've earned that. I'm sure Prime won't mind." "Where do we meet?" asked Bobby. "Here. Meet here after school. Hound is supposed to pick me up today. He'll take us to the base." I said. We said our goodbyes and separated to go to our lockers.

Turns out that we all had the next period together. Phys Ed. There were two classes on the PE field each period. Madi, Jamie, and Cassidy were in the opposite class than mine, and Toni and Bobby were in my class, just spread through role-call. We all met up together to run the mile. I pulled Bee out of my pocket and he sped around our feet. We were looking down almost constantly, watching Bee run through the grass and weeds alike. He sometimes transformed and launched himself off rocks. He'd obviously been kept cooped up too long. When we had to pass anyone, Bee would just climb up the leg of the whoever was nearest, be it Toni, Bobby, Madi, Cassidy, Jamie, or I, and we'd hide him in our oversized PE jacket pockets.

After PE, I split from my friends and headed to Wind Ensemble. I entered the room to find half the class already there, criss-crossing the room to get everything they needed. I grabbed a chair and headed to my spot. Since there was a different number of students in each class, we had to set up our own stuff. I dropped my chair and bag and went back to get a stand. Finally, I grabbed my instrument case and went to my seat. I discreetly transferred Bee to my backpack and I pulled out my folder of sheet music. By the time I had assembled my flute, Dr. Koby was on her platform. Dr. Koby was a petite woman, and very young. She was shorter than most of her students. She stood and conducted warm ups, and then we tuned. For the rest of the period, we practiced "Jupiter". It was a difficult piece, meant for professionals and written by Gustav Holst.

An hour later, I exited the class and headed to my locker. I packed my bag and headed to the designated meeting spot to find my friends already there. I brought them to the front of school, to the spot I normally sat at. We sat in the grass in a big ring and chatted. Bee was out of my pocket and leaning against my backpack. He was close to my leg, as to stay out of direct sight. You'd have to be looking for him to see him, but I wasn't worried. Teenagers could be the most oblivious people when the wanted to be.

When Hound pulled up, I grabbed Bee, but left my backpack, telling my friends to stay while I explained. They stayed seated as I approached the green jeep. Hound's hologram smiled at me as I walked up. "Hey Hound." I greeted. "Hey Hailey. Where's your bag? And Why's Bumblebee here?" Hound asked. "Bee snuck into my bag. He ended up getting found out by a few people, but they kept quiet. I explained to them, and I wanted to take them to the Ark. They deserve that much. I know they won't tell. I mean, they helped me out and they didn't even know me." Hound was silent and his hologram looked thoughtful. Hound's hologram got a blank look in his electronic eyes, and spoke after a minute. "I commed ahead. Prime consents. Bring 'em over." Hound said with a smile from his hologram.

As I walked away, I heard hound's roof extending. He was closing up so that he could get rid of the hologram. Good. We'd need all the room. I brought my friends back and we piled into Hound's alt mode. I sat in front of the steering wheel, with Bobby and Toni to my right, and Cassidy, Madi, and Jamie behind me. Hound sped off toward base. Bee sat cross-legged on the dashboard. Once we hit hiking tail, Hound lowered the roof and sped up. He launched himself off bumps in the road for our benefit. The brief moments of zero-gravity made us erupt in giggles.

He split off the trail and drove down the hill to the bottom of the little ravine where the Ark rested. He stopped in front of the large pile of rocks and boulders disguising the Ark entrance. "Here we are." Hound said. We piled out. Hound transformed, causing awed expressions to plaster themselves on my friends' faces. They were still smiling by the time Hound had moved the large boulder out of the way of the Ark's main entrance (and only entrance/exit since all the others were buried in a mountain).

Hound led us inside and straight to Prime's office. Hound opened the door for us, then left us with a friendly smile. We walked through the oversized door to find Optimus sitting at his desk with a datapad in hand. I scaled the ladder up the side of the desk, quickly followed by my friends. "Hey Prime." I said. At this point, Bee scooted off my shoulder and slid down my front until he landed on the desk neatly on his feet. "Hello. Now, why may I ask, why do we have guests today?" Prime asked politely. "Bee sneaked into my bag. I didn't know it and he almost got caught by a teacher." I started. "But I let him hide in my backpack instead." Bobby added. "We didn't want Hailey or Bee to get in trouble." Jamie said. "So we just didn't tell anyone." Madi said. "We just asked Hailey about it privately after class." Cassidy finished. "And I almost lost Bee in the crazy hallways." I stated. "I picked him up and gave him back." Toni supplied. All my friends seemed a little intimidated by Optimus, (Which is understandable) but they reacted much better than the first group of friends I'd brought to the Ark. Bobby and Toni seemed the most comfortable.

Prime nodded and went on to say "I thank you for helping Bumblebee manage a safe return home." "Ok guys, Prime's got a mountain of datapads to sort. He's just too nice to kick us out." I said as I stood and motioned for them to do the same. Prime chuckled but didn't say anything as we left his office. "Oh boy." I muttered as Prowl turned the corner laden with datapads. He neatly stepped over us without missing a beat. My friends flinched, but I was used to it. From Prime's office, we heard him groan just before we turned the corner and were out of earshot.

I led them to the rec room explaining the significance of the room on the way there. We stepped through the doors to find a calm rec room. I looked for someone who was hopefully make a good first impression of Cybertronians. Bluestreak noticed us and waved and smiled at us. I walked over to his table and we all scaled the ladder. "Hey, Hailey. Hey Bumblebee. Who are they? I've never seen you guys before. You must be Hailey's friends. Hailey usually has good taste in friends, so I think I'll like you, but why are you here? I mean, Not that it's a bad thing to have guests, it just that its not usual." Bluestreak rambled. "Bee snuck into my bag. He almost got into some trouble, but they prevented it. So they got to come here as a reward for keeping their mouths shut!" I said.

We made conversation easily with Bluestreak, and he was saying half of it. At some point Red Alert came over. "Oh, hi Bluestreak. Prowl was wondering when he'd be getting those reports from patrol- Oh. Who are they?" Red stopped mid-though once he noticed my friends. "My friends. They're already checked in with Prime. Don't worry." I said, hoping to stop a freak-out before it happened. But it was not to be so. "How long have you known them? How can we trust them? They could be spies! I have to warn Prime!" Red said just before he ran off to Optimus' office. "Poor Optimus." I muttered. My friends looked a bit flustered, and I didn't blame them. "Hey, Blue, I think they're a bit overwhelmed. I think We'll just go to a less populated room." I said, trying to be polite. "I totally understand. No one's in the holoroom, I'd suggest there. It's fun there, isn't it?" Bluestreak said, keeping it short (amazingly enough). "Great idea. See ya later."

I led my friends down the hall and to the empty holoroom. Bee reached up to the controls. He extended a spike from his finger and inserted it into an appropriate slot. It was small, but it apparently worked. The gray of the holoroom was replaced by a Cybertronian city. Bee showed us around, explaining that it was the Autobot capital, and even though it was holographic and in ruins, it had a certain beauty.

Hours of random conversations later, my friends went home satisfied.


	78. Fixing the Screw Up

The next day, Wheeljack called me to his lab via comm link. I arrived at the familiar blast-proof doors to find that Wheeljack already had them ajar. He waved me inside and set me on the table.

"What's up, 'Jack?" I asked. Bee leaned out over the edge of my shoulder to look up at his friend. "I finally fixed it! ...I think. Anyways, I should be able to turn you back to normal, Bumblebee." Wheeljack explained, displaying is repaired shrink ray. "Should?" Bee asked skeptically. "Well, I can't test it on a live subject, but it worked in the tests." Wheeljack said, gesturing to a giant (even by Cybertronian standards) piece of sheet metal. Bumblebee looked uncertain, but allowed himself to be passed to Wheeljack without opposition.

Wheeljack set him on the floor and took aim. Bee flinched as the jet of green light struck him. When the vapor from the ray cleared, there stood Bee at his regular height. "I'm big again!" Bee said happily. "Bigger, but still short." Wheeljack teased. Bee pouted. "Ah, you know I'm just kidding. Sorry I ever got you into this mix up in the first place." Wheeljack said, placing his hand on Bee's shoulder. Bee smiled and said "Don't worry about it. But this whole incident does make me wonder," Bee said. "Wonder what?" Wheeljack asked. Bee smiled wider and said "Why do I even hang out with you?"


	79. Malicious Intent

It was finally summer vacation, and Bobby, Toni, and I were strolling in the park. Ever since the incident with Bee, we'd become close friends. We were walking around the park near my house. We passed the playground, and when we saw the swings were open, we quickly fixed that. We took up the entire swing set unopposed. We each took turns launching ourselves off the swings. The dusty, dirty sand on the playground made for a semi-soft landing. We eventually burned off our hyperness, and went back to walking.

We were talking about the Autobots mostly. I told them the many stories of battles, times I'd been kidnapped and almost died, boring stuff like that. They were pretty interested, and when we started talking about daily life at the Ark, they asked polite questions. As it turned out, Bobby and Toni had been huge transfans even before they knew they were real. So, we fangirled a lot about the cartoons, but it was odd for me to fall back into my fangirlish ways. I was pretty used to seeing them. Back before I met them, I'd had so many instances where I'd been talking about some Autobot randomly appearing, and I'd easily picture myself clutching their foot saying "Take me with you!" But what transformers fangirl hasn't pictured that?

We were so engrossed in our conversation, that we didn't notice that the sun was setting and the park was empty. We had planned for Bobby and Toni to stay the night anyway, so we weren't really concerned. My Mom's voice came over the comm link earbud that was firmly in my ear. I pulled it out and held it between my two fingers so that all 3 of us could hear. "Honey, It's getting late." Mom chided. "Come home, dinner's ready." Dad added. "'Kay. We'll be home soon. We'll start walking-" I was cut off as a flash of purple streaked past.

The energy bullet left a scorch mark on the ground to my left, and it badly burned the tips of my fingers. Plasma and skin don't get along too well, so my fingers were instantly red, the first few layers of skin burned right off. I stifled a cry of pain, which came out as a distressed squeak instead. I then looked right, to the source of the shot: Starscream. Flanking him was Skywarp and Thundercracker. "Oh hey. TC, Warp." I said, using their hated nicknames, causing all their concentrated gazes to glares. "Call me Screamer, and by Primus, I'll-" Starscream started. "I wasn't. I was going to call ya Squeaky. Much more fitting, wouldn't you say?" I asked my friends. They nodded their heads stiffly; they were doing much better than I did on my first meeting with the 'Cons.

All 3 jets had their blasters centered on us, so we couldn't move. Unless, of course, we wanted to die. But personally, I think being alive is a pretty sweet deal. So I stayed put and my friends did the same. I had a feeling they were going to follow in whatever I did, which was extremely smart of them. My legs ached to flee, run as far as possible in the opposite direction, as human instinct commanded. If fear had _me_ battling my instincts, standing their ground musty have been torture for Bobby and Toni. They didn't show it, they were holding up well under pressure, which is essential if one is to survive a Decepticon interaction.

The second Starscream turned his head to give orders, I snatched my necklace from around my neck. I blasted Thundercracker with the null ray, and Skywarp with the blaster. I fired another blaster round at Starscream, and Skywarp teleported out of the way of my null ray shot. Skywarp appeared behind me and snatched up Bobby and Toni. "I wouldn't, if I were you." Skywarp warned, giving my friends a harsh squeeze to make them gasp for breath. "Drop them. Both of them." Starscream said. I reluctantly dropped my weapons on the grass and folded my hands behind my head. I felt like a convict, and they were the cops. ('Con cops. What's next? Is Megatron gonna start donating to charity? No, more likely he'd just step on the charity.)

Skywarp picked me up as well, cramming us tightly together in one fist. Starscream rebooted Thundercracker, and we were placed in the blue jet's cockpit. Starscream picked up my necklace, sticking it in his cockpit as he transformed. We made the trip to the Annihilation in silence. We had nothing to say, too preoccupied by our own fearful thoughts.

Once there, Skywarp took Bobby and Toni while Thundercracker carried me. Starscream left us. Each of us were violently struggling in their metallic fists at first, but we quickly ended that. The more you struggled, the harder they squeezed. I could hardly breathe when I finally stilled. We were brought straight to Megatron. "Oh, I see we have the pleasure of having you as a guest again. And some newcomers too, by the looks of it. Friends of yours? Well, then you'll get the pleasure of watching them die the same slow, painful death in store for you before you get the special treatment." Megatron said to me, a sadistic grin on his face. "Take the insects to the brig. Put the energon bars on full power. Starscream is to watch them." Megatron ordered before striding out of the room, pleased with himself. Starscream walked back into the room, an almost empty energon cube in servo. He snatched all 3 of us up where we were again tightly crammed into one fist.

"So, why me? Just for kicks?" I asked as Starscream carried us down to the brig, the lowest level in the Annihilation. "He wasn't happy that you had been toying with us for so long. We thought you had information, but we found all you knew and more one one fan database alone. Not to mention the 500 others we found. Your internet really makes everything far too easy. Not to mention that the television show is pretty interesting. What is that nickname the humans have given it? G1, am I correct?" Starscream explained. It was obvious his question was rhetorical. _Slag. I'm dead. And now so are Bobby and Toni._ I thought pessimistically. _Just an average Friday afternoon._ I added to myself sarcastically.

Starscream dropped us in a cage roughly. "Oh, I nearly forgot. This is yours, isn't it?" Starscream asked mockingly, holding up my necklace. He swished around what little energon was left in his cube and said "I guess I should give it back." He said just before promptly dropping it in the energon. A burst of blue electricity sparked from the spot it fell in. "Here, have it!" He laughed, chucking the cube at us. We all had to dive out of the way, lest be crushed. The energon spilled over half the cell, and Starscream finally turned on the energon bars as he left. "I don't think you'll be going anywhere without your weapon. Get comfortable, you'll be here for the rest of what's left of your pathetic lives." He called as he disappeared down the hall, leaving us alone with our thoughts and his spilled energon.


	80. Jail Break

In the intensity of the moment, I had not noticed the pain my hand brought, but now since I had nothing to think about, took over. All I could think of was how much it hurt. "Ratchet will have to patch me up. I must have lost at least 5 layers of skin." I said, looking down to my red and raw fingers. I couldn't just sit here complaining, so I instead started to think of ways to escape. The pain receded into a stinging tingle the more I pulled my mind away to brainstorm. I still had no plan, but I needed my necklace back. I stood and walked over to the energon spill. I was careful to not let myself slip as I tread through the glowing spill to retrieve my necklace. I had to use my left hand to pick it up since my right fingers were still in pain. I walked back to dry ground, leaving glowing footprints for a few steps. After wiping the layer of slick, acidic energon covering my necklace off on the leg of my pants, I clipped my necklace back around my neck, hoping that Wheeljack would be able to resurrect it.

Bobby and Toni stood as I stepped up to them. "You guys ok?" I asked. "Bruised, but otherwise unharmed." Bobby stated. "Same here." Toni nodded. "You got the worst of it." Toni said, pointing to my red fingers. I waved her off and said "I'll put a band-aid on when I get home." "You plan on surviving then." Bobby said, it was not a question but a statement. "Indeed I do. At least we're not going down without a fight. I can contact the Ark if I can get to the control room. The computer on the bridge should be similar to Teletraan 1, kinda like comparing a Mac to a PC." I explained in a whisper. They came close, but seemed confused as to why I had dropped my voice. "The walls have ears, you know. Ears named Soundwave." I explained as we formed a huddle. They nodded in understanding.

"First of all, we need to get out." I said. "Won't they see us?" Toni asked. "Nope. I trashed the camera the last time I was here with Bee." I explained, pointing out the camera lens that still had the grappling hook through the lens. "That's why they posted Squeaky on guard duty. He obviously thinks that's wasting his time, so he up and left. That makes things all too easy." I finished. "You'd think they'd fix that." Toni muttered. "Megs would say it's a waste of time and energon. 'Cons aren't very good about repairs." I said. "How do we get out?" Bobby asked, bringing us back on track. I broke the huddle and looked around. "Good question." I muttered.

The bars were set too close together to slip out. There was no way to short them out. Then I thought of The energon cube. "There. That's meant to hold energy _in_, right? Why can't it hold it _out_?" I said. We all walked over and pushed it out of the puddle, which was easy to do over the energon slick floor. We climbed into the cube through the already open end. We needed to make this thing a tunnel. All 3 of us had keys to our respective houses, and we used those to saw away the top edge of the side opposite the opening. With that accomplished, we all started throwing our bodies at the back wall. After doing this about 20 times, the wall finally came down. It wasn't a neat door, but it would serve our purpose. We shoved the cube until it was an inch away from the energon bars. Then, we all threw all our weight on the cube simultaneously, shoving the cube under the bars, just barely. We all ran through. I was last to go, and the energon bars broke through the cube a second after I emerged from the end of the cube. We all stared at what had been our escape tunnel, now bored completely through by the energon bars, and quickly disintegrating. "Well... He did say to put the energon bars on max power." I said.

We were all anxious to be out of the brig, so we ran up the hall. Once we got to the main hallways, I knew my way around vaguely. I also knew there was security cameras all over. We had to pick our way down the halls, ducking into blind spots of the cameras, waiting for them to swivel away, then sprint by and do it all over again with the next camera. We had to duck down a different hallway 4 times to avoid a wandering Decepticons. I'd never been so thankful to have rubber soled shoes instead of metal pedes in my life. The clanking of their pedes completely drowned out our much softer footsteps, making it significantly easier to get away.

We were near the command room, only two hallways away, when we heard someone coming. We were in the middle of one long, straight hallway. With nowhere else to go, Toni and I had to give Bobby a boost by letting her stand on our palms while we hoisted her up. She barely reached the button to open the door, and we ducked inside. We had nowhere to hide immediately, so any camera could easily get an eyeful of us. We were in the med-bay, which only had one camera in the corner. Luckily for us, it was disassembled. Hook did not appreciate being watched, apparently.

We hid behind the base of a berth, having to line up one behind the next to fit behind the pole, until the footsteps died away. We emerged and before we left, I said "Maybe we can find something useful in here. If we have to keep taking turns like we are to avoid the 'Cons, I'm not sure we'll ever make it to the bridge before they find out we're gone." Bobby and Toni nodded and we split up so search. We found lots of stuff that would work, but it was all transformer size. Toni found Rumble's blaster, which was actually our size, but it was here for a reason. It was useless to us; the whole thing looked like a Wheeljack experiment gone bad.

At one point, we all were getting on a rolling cart to look there, It was a short jump, and all three of us made it. However, our jumps had moved the cart slightly, so a transformer sized pocketknife looking thing fell to the ground with a clatter. I slid down the leg of the cart to investigate, closely followed by Bobby and Toni. It looked like it was meant for use on circuit-boards or something, since the attachments were so tiny by Cybertronian standards. A tiny welder had broken off, and it was now useless. Something that was very twisty and alien looking had also broken off, but I had no idea what it did. Not knowing if it could kill me by electrocution or not, I just left it alone. Another attachment had been bent, but not broken off so I paid it little notice. Something that did catch my attention was the wrench that had broken off. It seemed innocent enough, and when I picked it up, I found that it was just a normal wrench. It was a bit large in my hand, but it worked.

I tossed it in the air and caught it a few times, getting a feel for the weight. "I can work with this." I said, mostly to myself. My comment did not go unheard though. "A wrench?" Bobby asked skeptically. But there was no time to answer as approaching footsteps sent us scampering into hiding. We slid between two cases of spare parts not a moment too soon. Hook walked through the doors not a second later. I silently cursed. "Hailey, your eyes." Bobby whispered in my ear. I nodded and shut my eyes quickly, so as not to be given away by the glow. "What's this? Broken? I didn't leave this on the ground..." Hook muttered. Toni and Bobby tensed on either side of me, so I knew he was talking about the pocketknife thing.

I felt the tingly sensation of being scanned. I immediately knew that he was aware of us now, so I opened my eyes and stepped out. He turned to me looking surprised, and started to reach his finger to the side of his head. "No comm link for you!" I declared as I let the wrench fly. I got lucky, and it hit him squarely in the temple. He flopped to the floor, completely unconscious. I retrieved my wrench, having to yank it out from under his wrist.

"How did you do that?" Toni gasped as my 2 friends ran up to stand by me. "There's a vital energon line that carries energon to the processor in their temple. If you dent the temple, you can lessen the flow to the processor, causing them to black out." I explained, displaying the dent on Hook's expressionless face. The wrench had left a spider-web looking crack in his visor. "You hang out with Ratchet too much." Toni said with a shake of her head and a smile. "No, I hang out with Wheeljack too much. And he ends up in the med-bay a lot." I corrected. That caused a smile to spread across both my friends' faces. "C'mon, we've gotta hurry. Eventually, his systems will compensate for the slower energon flow and he'll wake up and alert the others." I said. We ran out of the med-bay and back down the hall.

I downed 2 more 'Cons with my wrench before we reached the bridge. We ducked through the door, which had been left ajar. We all scrambled under the nearest computer console without being seen. "The communications center is over there." I whispered almost inaudibly, pointing out the purple computer a quarter of the way around the room. We had to scramble under the desk, having to avoid the pedes of the mechs on duty the whole way. Most of them kept their legs still, so it was easy. When we came across Wildrider however, he was swinging one foot. It was obvious that he wanted to get out and go for a drive by the way he kept spinning the tires on his legs. His swings were mostly consistent, so it was a matter of timing when we ran across. I went first, then Toni. Bobby's timing was a second off, so she had to scrunch against the wall for a moment. Wildrider's pede brushed against her ever so slightly, but he was too preoccupied to notice anything but direct contact. Bobby ran to meet us, rubbing the fold of her shirt that had touched Wildrider's foot at if it was expected to explode. We quickly moved on, just in case Wildrider actually decided to look.

We finally made it to the communications center, which no one sat at. I used my house key to unscrew a few bolts on a panel, and all 3 of us worked together to set it on the ground soundlessly. I motioned for them to crawl inside the console with me. We easily slipped through the open panel, then we leaned the panel against the console (which was difficult to do from the inside) so that the opening would be less noticeable. I found a maintenance panel, and I pulled out my iPod. "Sunstreaker and Sideswipe taught me away to use my iPod to hack a computer." I said in a hushed whisper as I grabbed a certain cable and using my key to cut it from the panel. I was given a slight shock, but the cheap metals used in my key coupled with the coating of paint made for a horrible conductor, so it wasn't a big deal. We all had to keep extremely quiet, so were were all speaking a such a volume that it was hard to hear each other when we were only about 2 feet apart. A Cybertronian's hearing could (and would) be turned up to the point that they could easily hear our heartbeats if they got suspicious.

I looked up from the blue alloy wire when Toni commented. "The Lambo Twins? They don't seem like the techy type." "They taught me how to do it using Ironhide's personal computer as a practice dummy." I admitted. I quickly went back to laying the wire across the port on the bottom on my iPod where it docked with a computer. I grabbed another wire, green alloy this time, cut it, and laid it over the other wire. "Prank of some sort, right?" Bobby asked. "Yeah. The second he turned it on, Nyan cat blasted and he couldn't get rid of it until he eventually unplugged the computer." I said, smiling at the memory of hearing Ironhide yelling and cursing over the annoying melody of the Nyan Cat.

With a bit of fiddling, I was able to turn my iPod on and go to my texting app. Since I was using the Nemesis' network, the keyboard that showed up was not english letters, but the Cybertronian hieroglyphic alphabet. "We're fragged." Bobby said when she saw the alien letters. "Not quite. Ratchet has been teaching me Cybertronian. I can't read their language yet, but I know the alphabet. What I send will be english words in Cybertronian letters, but it will work." I explained as I started o type. In english, the message read "_Hailey Bobby Toni at Annihilation Help_"

The second it sent, I disconnected the wires from my iPod. I led our way back through the mess of wires, cables, and circuit-boards back to our opened panel. I peeked outside only to quickly pull back into the heat of the console and clamp a hand over my mouth. I directed them to move back as far as we could. "_Megatron!_" I whispered. "Megatron is at the console. If he tries to open a communication channel, he'll see it's not working. He may get suspicious, and he'll have to stick his ugly helm in here to fix the problem!" I explained. I started to pace the small space of open floor I had in anxiety. Our only way out was blocked by Megatron's thick black leg. It was only a matter of time before had to fix my tampering, and when they did they'd find us. "I guess we need another way out." I said, finally standing still.

I wiped beads of sweat off my brow, which stung my burned fingers. "How is this thing not overheating?" Toni asked. Both Bobby and Toni were fanning themselves with their hands. Toni's nearly inaudible sentence may have very well saved our lives. "The vents! That's our ticket outta here!" I whispered. I led them crawling up through the console. We were behind the screen when we heard someone yelling, which wasn't hard to pick up since the only other noises in the room were typing keys and console vents. "Lord Megatron! The humans have escaped!" Hook ran in yelling. We were trapped in the consoile now, but we had a decent view of the room if we looked out of the vent.

Megatron started barking orders to search the base. After about 10 minutes, there was a constant stream of 'Cons coming in the room. There would only be one at a time, as we could see from our vantage point through the vent, and they would leave after doing a quick but thorough search, then another would take their place a few minutes later. We didn't dare leave the console because the heat from the interior of the console hid our infra red signatures, making us invisible to their scanners. "We'll have to hitch a ride with a 'Con then." I explained in between 'Con visits. By the time, 3 had already been through, including Megatron. I went back down lower in the console and found wires that were vital parts to the system that delivered energy around the Annihilation. If one connection was broken, all power would stop. I showed Bobby and Toni which wires they were and went back to look for our victim.

The next 'Con to enter was perfect for our plan. It was Soundwave. He'd been in the command room when Hook had first brought the news, and I saw Soundwave eject all his cassettes, Megatron wanted all hands on deck. (Or in some cases, paws and claws.) Soundwave was alone for once, and therefore an easy target. I threw my wrench at him, and it hit its mark. Soundwave crumpled to the floor, so we had little time. Bobby and Toni were already in place. Toni and Bobby pulled the wires that I had pointed out to them, and all power in the Annihilation went out, rendering all security cameras useless. The 'Cons now knew we were at the bridge, so they'd all come running. We scrambled out of the vent and over to Soundwave. I pried open Soundwave's chest compartment, using my wrench like a crowbar. Once it was open, we all jumped into the cavity and shut the door. We slipped into the hollow normally occupied by the Cassetticons. Soundwave roused quickly after that, just as the flood of Deceptions entered the command room. Bobby, Toni, and I sat perfectly still in Soundwave's chest compartment.

This was a pretty good plan if I do say so myself. This is the last place you'd look for humans; _inside_ one of your soldiers! Soundwave was unconscious when we got in his compartment, so so woke up aware of the pressure assuming that it was already there. It also helped that he was used to having the Cassetticons there. So Soundwave was totally clueless as Megatron started yelling at him. "They were _here_! You let the get away?" Megatron fumed. "Humans attacked me by surprise. Humans most likely fled. Suggested course of action: Go back to searches and keep all doors locked." Soundwave said in his monotone. Megatron growled and sent them back to search. Toni, Bobby, and I somehow shared a sigh of relief without moving a muscle and not making a noise.

After another 20 minutes of hiding in painful silence, a battle broke out and we knew the Autobots had gotten our message. Soundwave quickly joined the battle. Soundwave was shot and he fell backwards. All 3 humans had to stifle noises from surprise and pain. As Soundwave stood, I pointed up to the opening we had come through, silently saying "It's time to go." When he was fully upright, we all smashed Soundwave's chest door simultaneously, causing it to flip open. We jumped off before he could shut it or kill us, and we landed on the next mech's shoulder. It turns out it was Dead End, so we jumped to the next shoulder with Dead End swatting and grasping at us seconds before he was tackled. We missed the next mech's shoulder because he was too far, but the mech heard us scream and caught us mid-plummet. I looked up to our savior, getting ready to run just in case I was met by red optics, but relaxed as I greeted "Hey Bluestreak. Boy, am I glad to see you!" Bluestreak smiled, but was promptly shot. He closed his fingers around us protectively. We were all clutched in his left servo, much like the seekers had done to us previously. The main difference was that this mech didn't want to crush us.

Bluestreak fell to the ground. He let us go and said "Go! Get to Optimus Prime!" before jumping back into battle with Ramjet. We scrambled away quickly, trying to catch a glimpse of the red and blue mech through the battle. We had to dodge many pedes, and once had to flee from Decepticon fingers intent on plucking us up.

Eventually Toni caught a glimpse of Optimus and we made our way over as directly as possible. Optimus was locked in servo-to-servo combat with Megatron, as usual. I had to get Prime out of his stalemate so we could get out of the purple death trap of a ship. I tightly clutched the wrench I'd taken from Hook's med-bay and took aim at Megatron's helm. One swift throw and Megatron was down. Optimus looked down to us, and immediately called a retreat.

We arrived back at the house mostly unharmed. We each had our share of bruises and minor scrapes, nothing that wouldn't disappear within a few days. Ratchet had treated and bandaged my fingers on the ride back to my house in Optimus' trailer. By the time we got home, it was 2:00 in the morning. We went inside to find that my parents had already laid out our sleeping bags and pillows. In all the excitement, we hadn't had time to be tired, but now that we were home, we fell asleep fully clothed the second our heads hit our pillows.


	81. Bragging Rights

Bobby, Toni, and I went back to the Ark the next morning. (Well, it was more like afternoon, but we had quite a busy day yesterday, and we hadn't woken up until noon.)

"Ok, I gotta know. How did ya do it?" Sideswipe asked. His golden twin sat right next to him, both brothers having identical curious expressions. From our perch on a transformer sized coffee table, we each took turns explaining how we had first used the cube to make a tunnel, then how we snuck through the halls. The TV behind us 3 humans could have been invisible, it got no attention (despite the fact that it was on) as I we told our tale. "We had to duck into the med-bay when we heard footsteps, and when we did, Hailey suggested we look for something to use as a weapon." Bobby said. "All 3 of us split up, and found nothing for a while." Toni continued. "At one point, we knocked some transformer-sized pocketknife looking thingy off a table. There was a wrench attachment about our size that had broken off from the fall, so I took it." I said. "A wrench?" Sunstreaker asked skeptically. "That's what I said! But Hailey was amazing with that thing!" Bobby explained happily. When the Twins each quirked an optic ridge at me, I just shrugged. "Hook came in a few seconds later, and Hailey saved us by throwing the wrench and knocking him out!" Toni continued the story. "Did she hit him in the head?" Sideswiped asked Toni. "Uh, yeah." Toni replied. "Looks like Ratchet the Hatchet taught you a few tricks." Sideswipe said as the brothers looked to each other and smiled.

Two wrenches flew from nowhere. The wrenches hit the Twins in the back of the head. It was hard enough to hurt like the Pit, but not enough to knock them out. The Twins were rubbing the back of their heads as the 3 humans present directed their gaze to the point of origin of the projectiles. A very peeved medic sat across the room. He excused himself from his conversation with First Aid and stalked over to our corner of the room. "How many times have I told you _not to call me that?_" Ratchet fumed. "But we weren't even talking smack about you!" Sideswipe whined, covering his new watermelon sized dent protectively. Ratchet stooped to pick up his tools while saying "Now why don't I believe that?" "The girls were telling us about how they escaped, and Hailey used your wrench-throwing trick." Sunstreaker explained. "Oh, really?" Ratchet asked, looking to me. "Yeah, it saved our skins back at the Annihilation." I said with a smile. Ratchet was smiling, which in itself was rare. "Nice one! Well, I better get back to the Med-Bay. Sunstreaker, Sideswipe, get your sorry afts to the Med-Bay to get those dents fixed within the hour, or so help me I will hunt you down." Ratchet warned. "All the fuss over an injury _you_ caused?" Sunstreaker asked. "No. I need to give you both a medical exam too. Been a month since the last one." Ratchet said just before walking away.

The Twins sighed. "But medical exams are so _boring_!" Sideswipe complained. "Humans don't have to fragging go." Sunstreaker added. "Yeah we do, you liars. And it's not that bad. My god, you two sure you're not younglings?" I said. "Oh, shut up." Sideswipe said. "And you got brownie points with the doc-bot." Sunstreaker added. "Not like you need 'em. He likes you." Sideswipe said. "Maybe because I don't prank him every other day and I listen to him?" I said. "So, Squishies, you gonna finish the story?" Sunstreaker asked, changing the subject.

10 minutes later, our story was done. I shooed the Twins off to their check-ups. The two Lamborghinis glared at me, but left. We sat on the coffee table, trying to figure out what do do next. I sat on the edge with my feet dangling over the edge. I swung my legs back and forth. Eventually I said "What to do... Oh! How's about some flight practice?"

* * *

2 minutes later we arrived at Wheeljack's lab. 5 minutes after that, I emerged from the lab as Cascade, leaving my fleshy human form behind with a very cooperative Wheeljack. Toni and Bobby sat on the palm of my upturned servo. They were still in awe of my robotic form. "How long have you had this?" Bobby asked excitedly. "Quite a while." I said simply. "Cool." Toni added.

We reached the front door of the Ark at this point. Once out in the heat of the summer day, I set my friends on the dusty ground and said "Watch this." Within seconds, I sat in alt mode next to them. "A Camaro!" Toni and Bobby said in unison. "Hop in!" I said, swinging my door open wide." They jumped in and I sped away, closing the door for them. "Is having passengers weird?" Toni asked after a minute. "Honestly, yeah. Feels weird. But then, you two are the only passengers I've ever had besides the Mayor. And the 'Bots were used to it when they got here because they'd give smaller 'Bots a lift. So I'm pretty much the only one who finds it odd." I explained. My friends nodded.

We quickly reached the top of the hill. I swung my door open and my two friends clambered out. I flipped my parts around until I settled back down into F-22 mode. I popped the cockpit open and said "Here come the fun part." Bobby and Toni eagerly used a boulder to get on my wing and from there they ran across it and scrambled into my cockpit. I shut the silver-tinted cockpit and took off. In seconds, I was flipping and twisting through the air. Both my friends and I were having fun.

I did a nose dive that swooped past the front of the Ark. The twins were there. When I swooped low to ask them why they weren't in the Med-Bay, Sunstreaker jumped on top of me and Sideswipe grabbed my wings and dangled below my alt mode. "Hey! What the?" I yelled as I pulled back up away from the ground. The Twins were laughing and Ratchet was spewing curses. It wasn't exactly rocket science piecing together what happened. "They skipped out on Ratchet, didn't they?" Toni asked, even though we all knew the answer. "Yup." All 3 of us said at once. Bobby and Toni facepalmed, but I was too preoccupied with trying to keep us airborne. "You guys are heavy!" I said. The Twins' extra weight was making flight nearly impossible, and I was getting closer to earth every second. Normally, I'd nose dive and try to scrape them off on the ground, but I didn't want Bobby and Toni to go crashing around the cockpit. If I had dentas in plane mode, they would have been gritted.

Just then, a perfect idea came to me. It was either going to work perfectly, or fail miserably. I hoped for the best as I started to transform. Bobby and Toni were in my hands by the time I was a robot. I placed them on my shoulders where they clung to some piece of armor for dear life. I was too preoccupied to give it too much attention. I hovered in the air and the Twins had ended up hanging from my legs. The jet turbines on my heels were so close to their chassis that it almost scorched their paint. They clung to my shins desperately as I turned to be facing ratchet. I kicked first my right leg, sending Sunstreaker flying, then my left, sending Sideswipe after his brother. They landed in front of ratchet in a heap. Ratchet nodded to me and dragged the struggling Twins inside. I landed on the ground with my friends still clinging to my shoulders. They relaxed a bit once we were on the ground, and I stayed out of the air for their sake and instead took them for a drive around town.


	82. Domino Effect

My Autobot filled life was falling into a pattern. I get kidnapped, fight, lull on Decepticon activity, kidnapped, fight, lull. I was familiar enough with the Annihilation that I probably could maneuver around as well as any Decepticon. I'd proven that well enough during my last visit when Bobby, Toni, and I were escaping. Decepticons were a regular part of my existence at this point.  
On this particular day, I was glaring at my summer reading assignment. _Iliad, or internet?_ I asked myself. Within seconds, I was sitting at my laptop, the battered library book abandoned on a chair. I was watching G1 via YouTube. (I had wifi access thanks to Teletraan 1) After a few minutes, I started to wonder. "How did we get this so _right_? The Autobots and Decepticons look like they jumped right out of the cartoon. Same voices and everything." I said to myself over the intro song. I decided to talk to Ratchet about it.

"We're only human." I said as I finished explaining my thoughts. He contemplated and replied "Not bad thinking. For a human." He said the last part with a shrug. I looked at him with an annoyed expression. He had his optics shut and a look that said "you got lucky". He opened one optic when I tapped my foot and crossed my arms. We both laughed. Then he said "But seriously," he paused here to lay his hand in the table, palm up. "Let's talk to Wheeljack." he finished as I clambered onto his palm. Once I was secure, he removed his servo from the table. He set me on his shoulder and exited the pristine med bay.  
Once we arrived at Wheeljack's lab I almost giggled at the contrast. Most of the Ark was free of clutter, but had slight dust in the edges of rooms. That was there from being tracked in from the outside. So it wasn't filthy, or pristine either for that matter. The Med-Bay was so clean you could eat off any surface, even the ceiling. Wheeljack's lab looked like a tornado had recently passed through.  
It was organized chaos. He had mounds of categorized machinery. Tools were crammed into one Cybertronian size toolbox (overflowing). In one corner was salvageable parts. Another corner held scraps to be melted down. A jumbled cabinet held new parts (becoming scarce). The worktable was half covered with parts to be sorted. Wires protruded from an overflowing bin. The successful inventions (meaning the ones that didn't explode in Wheeljack's face) were neatly arranged and polished on shelves.  
The half of the work table extending from the unsorted pile is where Wheeljack sat. His earfins flashed blue as he looked away from the device he was currently tinkering with and said "What's up?"  
His hands were grimy as well as his chassis, arms, and face. I smiled at that too. His white paint job never managed to stay white. "What'cha doing?" I asked. I wanted to make friendly conversation before jumping into our baffling future discussion.  
"Oh just dismantling a failed attempt. I'm trying to unbury my desk from this mountain." He gestured to the mound overtaking his desk. "I'm pretty sure I lost a data pad in there somewhere last week." he shrugged his shoulders. "I assume you came for something?" Wheeljack continued. "As a matter of fact, yes." Ratchet said.  
I told him about my observations and we all discussed different possibilities. So far, all were shot down as impossible. We were currently talking about alternate dimensions as a possible explanation. "You know the coordinates of Cybertron right? Why not take a look? Hack the Hubble or use Teletraan or something. See if it's even there." I suggested. They agreed so we went to Teletraan.  
Teletraan "piggybacked" onto the Hubble signal and tried to see Cybertron. We locked onto the coordinates and zoomed as far as possible. The space where Cybertron should have been was empty.  
Optimus was of course commed. Once Optimus was shown the vacancy Cybertron should have been filling, he told Wheeljack to get to work. Perceptor, Hoist, Ratchet, and First Aid helped. After all, building an inter-dimensional portal was a big project.


	83. Shattered Patterns

I didn't see Wheeljack, Ratchet, First Aid, Hoist, or Perceptor for three weeks. None ever left the lab for _anything_. I remember one day I passed Bee laden with glowing pinkish-purple cubes. "What's with the energon?" I asked of the scout. "I'm bringing it to the lab. They don't want to stop until it's done. It's been a couple centuries since they've worked like this. They basically live on the Cybertronian equivalent to heavily caffeinated coffee." Bee shrugged and continued on his way.  
That idea didn't appeal to me at all. I _hate_ coffee. Anyways, almost a month later the scientists stumbled out of the lab. They spoke to no one and went to their rooms. Once there they were in stasis for a full 24 hours. Once they finally woke up again (the first around 10am and the last around 11:30am) they went to the wash racks in turn. Finally looking and feeling like themselves again, Wheeljack unlocked the door to the lab (which he had locked so tight that not even Optimus' override code could get him into the room) and presented the portal. After a brief explanation (It was said by all the scientists. One would say one complete sentence and someone would pick up the next. So on and so forth.) they set it up and let it go.  
The people in the room were the builders, Optimus, Jazz, Ironhide, and I. We all watched as a white spark started to spin in the center of the machine. The machine was basically a ring with a control box attached. It looked simple but it was far from it.  
Something apparently went wrong. The machine rattled and instead of doing what it was supposed to, a shimmering rip opened up on the air itself and out of it spilled the Michael Bay movie Autobots. (Those being Optimus, Bumblebee, Jazz, Ratchet, Ironhide, Sideswipe, Arcee, and Jolt. Sam, Mikaela, Leo, Captain Lennox, and Agent Simmons tumbled out with them as well.) And there were Decepticons accompanying them (Megatron, Starscream, Blackout, Barricade, Bonecrusher, and Ravage.)  
All were still for a moment. Then all at once the Decepticons bolted out the door and straight out of the Ark, leaving all in their wake completely baffled. The Movieverse Autobots looked at the G1 Autobots in shock, and vice versa. I looked at the scene as well, but looked away at the sound of sparks. The machine was smoking. I broke the tense silence by saying "I guess our pattern is broken."


	84. Explanations

Once the initial "What the frag just happened?" wore off we decided to get to business. I'd figured out that the newcomers had come from the Bayformers universe immediately. Once I'd explained that to the G1 Autobots in the room, comprehension dawned on half the faces in the room. Other half, not so much.

The Movieverse Autobots all had expressions that clearly read "What?..." I had to explain again, with added tidbits from the G1 Autobots in the room.

What say we get into one of the newcomer's heads shall we?

Movieverse Optimus

I don't even know how in the Pit I got here. As far as I knew, I'd been dead as a doornail not a minute previous. I woke up, coughing up sand. Sam was standing on my chest looking burnt and I had the Matrix of Leadership protruding from my chest. I'd just defeated The Fallen and shed Jetfire's parts. In the midst of celebrating I was swept off my feet. I fell through some type of glittering bottomless pit and wound up here.

Next thing I know this little girl is explaining that I'm from another dimension. Me and my team actually. "So I'm from another dimension and he's me?" I pointed to a red and blue mech with a battle mask up. He had sharp spikes on his helm and he was so _blocky_! He looked like he could be made out of Legos. "Sorta. He's your counterpart. You two actually have quite a few counterparts." explained the human who'd I'd come to find was named Hailey. I nodded as reply. My team and I started to disentangle ourselves. I started thinking as I pulled my arm from under Ratchet's leg.

_This is a lot to take in. Why should I even believe them? The only things they have going for them is that they wear Autobot logos, the supposed Optimus has the same vocal track as me (really weird if you ask me), and that Hailey is perched on the supposed Optimus' shoulder. We fight for the humans in our universe, so why not here? I guess I really don't have a choice but to believe them anyway. _

"C'mon guys. I gotta show you something." Hailey said after whispering to the other Optimus. He turned to leave and we followed. We went down a series of orange halls (this color was killing my optics) until we came to what appeared to be a screening room. Hailey popped a CD into a slot and the title screen came on. Before we could get a good look she hit play. Next thing to come on screen was a huge cube. "Before time began, there was the cube..."


	85. Desert Skirmish

Remember how I said the Movieverse 'Cons ran from the Ark? Here's what happened to them after that.

G1 Starscream

I was out on patrol with Thundercracker and Skywarp. As usual. But then something not so usual happened. As we flew over the scorched desert sand near the end of our patrol we saw some weird looking crafts. There was a sleek army jet, an F-22 to be exact, and a combat helicopter. Driving below them and throwing dust and sand in the air behind them were a police cruiser and some kind of construction vehicle with a fork-like attachment. A brief scan showed there was something in the police cruiser. I didn't know what, but it wasn't human. The weirdest craft was an alien looking aircraft, some sort of rocket I guess. It looked Cybertronian, but at the same time it didn't.

"What do you think those are?" Thundercracker asked over a 3-way comm frequency between the 3 of us. "Humans?" Skywarp guessed. I ignored them and conducted a thorough scan. "They're Cybertronian! They've got strange energy signals but Cybertronian nonetheless. Since they're not one of us, they've got to be Autobots." I explained over the com. "Attack!" I yelled aloud as I dove down toward the strange vehicles firing a barrage of purple energy bullets, closely followed by Thundercracker and Skywarp.

Movieverse Megatron

My small army and I were talking about our current situation and how we got into it when a few colorful jets were spotted. We made nothing of them until they fired at us. Obviously we weren't just going to sit there and be target practice so I ordered them to retaliate. "Attack!" I called as I sped toward the apparent leader. I flew straight at the red, blue, and white jet in an airborne game of chicken. It tried to turn at the last second and I smacked its cockpit and knocked it off course. The battle raged.

G1 Starscream

We fought outnumbered. "You should've thought this through!" Thundercracker accused over the comm. I ignored him and aimed at the police cruiser. It transformed and that's when I noticed the decal on its shoulder. I had assumed it would be the human police logo, but it was the Decepticon insignia. "Wait, you're Decepticons?" I called to the cruiser. "Don't act so surprised." replied the black and white cruiser, taking aim. I transformed and called "So are we!"

Fighting ceased. We all lowered our weapons but no one powered them down, fighting could resume at any nanoclik. The "other Decepticons" explained they showed up here and they didn't know how. They introduced themselves and the one that shocked me was that the F-22 said his name was Starscream. "Impossible! _I _am Starscream!" The rocket went on to say that he was Megatron. "Megatron's gotta see this." I said to no one in particular as I commed our leader.


	86. Megatron Meets Megatron

G1 Megatron

"You idiot! That's impossible!" "That's exactly what I thought! But they wear the Decepticon insignia and have energy signatures similar to ours." came the crackly reply over the com. Starscream's screechy voice never carried well over any radio, but the long distance didn't help either.

I'd thought I'd heard him wrong at first. I still didn't believe him. Another robot claiming to be Megatron is not very believable. I opened private links to Skywarp and Thundercracker in turn, and they vouched for my treacherous SIC. I mulled it over. _They will most definitely be good sources of information, getting it willingly or otherwise is no matter. And if they really are Decepticons, they may prove to be good allies as well... _"Bring them to base. Keep a close optic on them though. I'll send Dirge, Ramjet, and Thrust to aid you in escorting them in. At the first sign of deception, do not hesitate to destroy them." "Yes, lord Megatron." Starscream replied to my orders.

Movieverse Megatron

"Megatron wants us to take you back to base." said the tri-colored jet claiming to be Starscream. We flew low to the ground, as to keep our ground units close with "Starscream" leading and the purple and blue jets behind. Skycracker and Thunderwarp I think... I didn't care enough to remember. The jets weren't of high rank as far as I knew. Who cares about soldiers?

Some point later 3 more jets met up and surrounded us. There was a blue one, red one, and a white one. _What is it with these idiots and color?_ I thought. _Color doesn't make for good disguises. _

Once we reached their base, doors swooshed open and a gray mech stood behind them. Like all the others, he looked blocky. The nanoclik I walked in the door, I knew that I was outnumbered. I had no intentions of staying here. Overtaking the place was out of the question, which I'd been contemplating on the way over. They may be idiots, but they were a lot of idiots. _I'll just steal their data and then scram._ I thought to my self, convinced.

G1 Megatron

I led them through the ship into the command room. I explained our goals on the way there. I explained who I was. Looking at the new arrivals, it made my troops look pretty good. The so-called "Megatron" was bulgy in some places, and his helm was utterly ridiculous, and in fact, quite ugly. All of them were very ugly. The so-called "Starscream" looked like an upside-down triangle. He seemed top heavy. I wondered how his spindly legs didn't snap, or how he didn't simply fall over. They all were made of what looked like tiny pieces compiled together. They didn't seem sturdy.

I offered them a place in my army. They refused. The other "Megatron" was gracious, but I could tell he was more like me than I first thought; determined and power hungry. _I'll just take their data and dispose of them._ I convinced myself.

"Why not wait until morning to take your leave? You can stay in my second in command's quarters." Starscream stiffened behind me. He was obviously displeased, but I ignored that. I needed a chance to get their data, and what better chance than recharge? They disappeared into the room for the remainder of the day.


	87. Deceptive Decepticons

Starscream

_ Why __**my**__ quarters?_ I internally fumed for the trillionth time in the past few megacycles. The solarcycle was nearly over. I needed recharge badly. My internal systems were screaming it in my face. I'd learned to ignore the warning flashing across my field of vision. Every time I shut it off, it popped back up again less than a nanoclik later. I stumped through the Annihilation. My quarters were taken. _Thank you Megatron._ I thought sarcastically. I **refused** to sleep in the rec room. I sighed. Then an idea hit me. I exited the ship and flew through the sky. I was slower than normal, but that's to be expected at 2:00am earth time. I finally reached the airport. I landed and stayed in plane mode on the empty plane spot on the runway. I set an internal alarm to go off at 6:00am so that I could get back to the Annihilation before Megatron got mad. Then I gratefully shut down for recharge.

Movieverse Frenzy

Barricade's chest plates opened. I gratefully jumped out. I wasn't sure what was going on, but Barricade was thoroughly confused about it. I was in an unfamiliar place. Everything was purple. _**That's**__ gonna get annoying._ I thought quickly before I turned my attention to Barricade. He gave me the go ahead and I slipped out of the room. Then I started to do what I do best: sneaking._ It feels good to be back in my element._ I thought as I silently slipped through the halls. My scanners were on high alert. I dodged out of view of every security camera I encountered.

I finally made it to the command room. I slipped over to the computer. I looked for a slot. When I found one, I thought _What is this thing meant for? … Cassettes? Who in the Pit uses those anymore?_ I had to hold back laughter. _Dude! Get in the millennium!_

I was back on track in less than a nanoclik. I extended a long spike from my wrist and jammed it into the slot. This was the same spike I'd used on the P.O.T.U.S. Mainframe. It was coded to not set off alarms. They'd find out what happened by morning, but we'd be long gone. I downloaded all the data files my processor could hold, to the point of getting a headache, and went back to the room where we were staying. I could only hold the data files for the past month. Ideally, I would've had time to sift through and just get the important stuff, like with a human computer (Oh such simplicity! I was almost unused to the Cybertronian tech, even as outdated at this was.) Unfortunately, these blocky morons were stupid, but not as stupid as fleshies. So now I knew everything down to the weather on this mudball planet for the past month.

I returned to the room silently and triumphantly. I tapped barricade's helm. He stirred enough to open his chest plating again. I slipped back into the aperture and it shut over me. I settled down for some well-earned recharge. _Not too shabby, if I do say so myself._

G1 Soundwave

I slipped into the borrowed room of the otherworldly Cybertronians. I silently used stasis cuffs on the sleeping form of the nearest mech besides "Megatron" and his second in command. When I got him out in the hall I saw the blades on his back and figured he was the helicopter. _Blackout is it? Whatever, any mech will do._ I dragged him to the lab and hooked him up to the processor reader. I took all the data the machine could hold, a month's worth. We'd have to sort later. We had to get him back quick. He most likely wouldn't remember a thing, but with Murphy's law you can never be positive. Although I liked our odds, a 93% chance of success. I dragged him back to the room and repositioned him how I'd found him. I left the room satisfied.


	88. Mad Megsy

G1 Starscream

When I arrived back at the Annihilation and 6:03am Earth time, apparently I'd already missed a lot. Megatron was fuming (Which wasn't so unusual itself. But usually, it wasn't of this magnitude. Not even at _me_.) Everyone was giving him as much distance as possible. Even Soundwave kept close to the walls.

Thundercracker approached me. "Where've you been?" He whispered. "Never mind that. What happened?" I replied. "The other Decepticons copied a month's worth of our files and disappeared without a trace." Thundercracker answered, looking over his shoulder when Megatron spat a Cybertronian curse especially loud. "And he hasn't slagged anyone yet?" I asked in surprise. "No. Probably because we managed to copy a month's worth of their data before they left." "That's worthy to save a few lives." "But not Skywarp's faceplate." I looked at my wing-mate questioningly. "He's in the Med-Bay with Hook right now. His whole face caved in." Thunder said in reply to my look. I grimaced just imagining the pain of such an injury. "At least he was spared the fusion cannon." I said. I'd gotten that treatment enough times to know that that hurt much more than any fist. Thundercracker nodded his agreement, and we parted.

Movieverse Megatron

"I have a vague memory. I think they copied my memory files." Blackout reported. "So they're smarter than I gave them credit for." I said. I dismissed Blackout with a gesture. I started thinking to myself, watching my soldiers meander through the warehouse. All of them were cleaning it out and making it suitable for us, while Ravage watched the prisoners; about 10 human warehouse employees. They would have been dead, but who knows when a hostage or two could come in handy? The Autobots made it all too easy with their organic-loving ways. _They are idiots, but we should not have let our guard down. How stupid._ I thought. _Ah well. Let the Autobots deal with their idiocy while we bide our time until we make a smarter move._


	89. Poking Fun

Skywarp

TC, Screamer, and I all sat in Screamer's quarters. Most of the mechs on the Annihilation were staying out of the hallways as much as possible, trying to avoid our still steaming leader. "So, what did ya think of those 'other Decepticon' guys?" I asked my wing-mates. "Not much. They were pretty ugly if you ask me." Thundercracker said. "Especially that Megatron. What was wrong with his helm?" Starscream added. He put his hands behind his helm and stuck his fingers out from behind it at awkward angles to emphasize his point, earning a smile from TC and I. "I dunno, but I still can't believe they deceived us like that! Oh, wait, yes I can; they're us." I commented. TC and Screamer smiled. "But you do have a point. There's no way those clunky bots could sneak through the base without getting detected." TC said seriously. "Especially not that Starscream. He looked likely to fall over any moment!" I added. TC and Starscream finally actually laughed at something instead of the smiles I'd been getting with previous jokes. I stood and used my arms to try and mimic the otherworldly Starscream's top-heavy shape. I clunked around for a while, then fell back on the berth crying "Tiiiiiiiimberrrr!" That caused my wing-mates to laugh harder, and I even started chuckling. Once we had all collected our wits, Starscream said "Apparently, in their universe, I look like a Dorito!" More chuckles arose and I dropped to my knees on the ground. I put on a false panicked face and shouted "Look out! Here comes Doritoscream!" pointing to my trine-leader. We all were laughing our afts off for the next minute straight.

Movieverse Starscream

Barricade, Blackout, Bonecrusher and I were clearing away the human junk from the warehouse. Megatron left the room and went into one of the storage rooms in the back of the warehouse, most likely to the one where Ravage was guarding the human prisoners. As soon as our leader was out of earshot, we stopped work and started chatting. "So, What do you guys think of this universe?" Bonecrusher asked. "Not much. Any earth is as pathetic as the next." Barricade said with a shrug. "And those 'other Decepticons' were idiots!" Blackout added. "Yeah. My counterpart was extremely obnoxious. Even his voice was enough to frazzle circuits." I said, remembering his screechy vocal track. "Maybe that's how they got so stupid. Listening to that all day would make any bot fritz." Bonecrusher said, causing the gathering of mechs to smile. "Am I really that annoying?" I asked, a look of false ashame on my face. This caused my peers to laugh. "What's going on over there?" Megatron called. "Nothing, lord Megatron." I replied. We went back to work, but with smiles still adorning our faceplates.

(((A/N: Even warmongering Decepticons can have fun every once in a while, right? No? Ah, who am I kidding? Writergurl616 gave me the ideas for the insults, and I ran with it. The next chapter will actually get somewhere, I promise.)))


	90. Tag!

_**Chapter 90: Tag!**_

The Movieverse 'Bots were given rooms. They had to share, two bots to a room. G1 Optimus had had a few of his soldiers bunk together to give the Movieverse 'Bots rooms. It was a bit more cramped than they were used to, but all 'Bots involved quickly adapted.

As far as command went, The two Optimi were co-leaders for now, which worked rather well. The Movieverse 'Bots insisted on taking up duties like the G1 bots already were doing, and eventually Prowl had them scheduled in.

Currently, I was sitting on a table between the two Bees. Movieverse Bee's comm link sounded off a clipped beep. "I'll be back." Came the Terminator's voice from his radio. "Creepy quote to use, but I get the point. Go ahead." I said to the yellow mech. Movieverse Bee nodded and gave a beep from his own vocalizers in lieu of a goodbye. "Poor guy. I can't imaging living without a vocalizer." G1 Bee commented. "He seems to manage pretty well. And I always thought it was pretty cute." I said. Bee gave me an odd look, and his chronometer clicked. "Oh, I'm up for patrol duty. See ya later, Hailey." Bee said as he stood up and left. I waved goodbye.

"Both Bees abandoned me. Ah well, I'll just go bug someone else." I said as I slid down the ladder on the side of the Autobot sized table and wandered around the rec room. I spotted Sunstreaker sitting alone with an almost empty energon cube. "What is it with me and yellow people today?" I wondered. I shrugged it off and approached Sunstreaker. "Hey Sunny!" I greeted, throwing my head back to look up at his face. "Hey shortie." He replied. I ignored the taunt and continued "Where's Sides? You two are usually joined at the hip." "Are not. And he'll be back from monitor duty shortly. Why?" "I'm curious and bored. Need I say more?" Sunstreaker smiled and looked away from me to down the rest of his energon.

I had a stupid idea, and just carried it out on a whim. I slapped my hand onto the yellow plating of Sunstreaker's pede and yelled "Tag! You're it!" I dashed in the opposite direction and paused in the open door of the rec room. Sunstreaker was confused for a second, but quickly took up the chase. I flew down the hall with Sunstreaker hot on my tail. He had the advantage of much longer legs, and therefore much more speed, but I could outmaneuver him. He paused to transform and was hot on my heels in moments. "Cheater!" I yelled, ducking around a corner. Sunstreaker had to slow down as to not hit the wall, giving me enough time to cut around another corner and duck through a door. He sped past the door in pursuit, too slow to see my retreat into the room.

"What are you doing here? Why do you seem so short of breath?" asked a feminine voice. I jumped about a foot in the air, startled by the unexpected voice. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." She apologized. "No, It's fine." I said, finally looking to see who it was. It was Arcee. The Movieverse femme was looking to me, with a datapad in hand. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I hadn't even realized I'd run into your quarters. I'll just get out of your way." I said, blushing furiously in embarrassment of bursting into her room. "It's fine, that's what I get for leaving the door open. But why were you running? Is there a Decepticon?" she asked, setting down the datapad. "No, I'm playing tag with Sunstreaker, but he cheated and transformed. How am I supposed to outrun a car?" I explained. She looked thoughtful. "Who said anything about running?" Arcee said after a moment. I was confused, and by way of answer, she transformed into her sleek motorcycle alt mode. "What?" I asked, still not comprehending. "Hop on, I'll help you out. Plus, I wanna join. We'll be a team." I smiled at her and jumped on the motorcycle just as Sunstreaker's engine revs could be heard coming back up the hall. Arcee sped out in front of Sunstreaker. "Now who's the cheater?" Sunstreaker called. "You cheated first!" I replied over my shoulder.

"Tell me where to go and I'll do the rest." Arcee said to me. "Ok, uh, take the next turn..." I instructed. The handlebars twisted under my grip and she made the turn smoothly, Sunstreaker having to slow down again. In the next corridor we passed through, Sideswipe nearly got his pedes run over by Arcee. Looking over my shoulder, I saw Sunny transform long enough to slap a palm onto his confused brother's chassis and yell "Tag! You're it!" before folding back down into a yellow Lamborghini and speeding down a different corridor than us. Sideswipe gaped less than a second before transforming and pursuing us. Arcee sped up to stay out of the Lamborghini's reach. Sideswipe transformed, and using the momentum he'd built up, he jumped over Arcee's alt mode, and Arcee couldn't react quickly enough before Sideswipe jabbed a finger into my abdomen and yelled "Tag!" He sped away, leaving me breathless from the force of his finger. Arcee once more picked up speed and we sped in the direction Sideswipe had disappeared. "Cut 'em off at the main hall!" I said, giving an indication of which way to turn by pressing lightly on the handlebars. She quickly took my direction and sped down the hall. Sunny and Sides were coming up the hall toward us as soon as we burst into the main corridor. They changed direction amazingly fast and headed for the exit.

I noticed Movieverse Bee walking toward the rec room on our left. I applied slight pressure to the left handlebar and Arcee gracefully made the turn. Arcee slowed slightly so that I could slap Bee's shin and call "Tag!" He got the message and leapt into action, transforming mid-stride.

My hand smarted, but that thought was pushed out of my mind as Arcee crossed the threshold of the Ark and the sunlight hit me. My hair was streaming behind me as I directed Arcee to turn down the hiking trail, headed for the small wooded area at the base of the mountain. Sunny was just ahead, and I heard an engine behind us. A glance over my shoulder proved that it was Bee. Arcee sped up, creating a cloud of dust that washed over Bee's yellow frame. As Arcee passed up Sunny, I turned around just in time to see Bee execute an amazing feat. He transformed and lifted up into the air. While in the air, he flipped over Sunny, taking time to tap the top of Sunny's alt mode while being upside down at the time, and landed smoothly back on the ground in vehicle mode, all within the matter of a second, and without scratching Sunny's paint job. Bee beeped at Sunny, which could easily be translated as "Tag!" then passed Arcee and I up. Sunny unconsciously slowed in obvious awe. "Remind me to have him teach me to do that." came a stunned Sideswipe's voice over the comm link. I hadn't realized that he'd been in the area, but didn't question it. _I__knew__he__was__one__of__my__favorite__'Bots__for__a__reason._ I thought.

By that time, Arcee had reached the edge of the woods, and drove through the tree line without hesitation. The trees were too dense for driving, which had been the point of coming down here. She transformed, and I stood at her side. "Now they'll be forced to play fair." I said, looking up to meet Acree's optics. "Plus, we have the advantage, being of smaller stature as we are." Arcee added. Three cars were headed straight for the woods. "Split up!" I called, and we each took off in different directions. I could heard the clanking and whirring of transformation, so I knew the others had arrived and were close. "Frag, I'm it!" Sides' voice came over the comm link. I kept running through the woods, keeping an eye out for red plating. I spotted Sunny a few yards to my left, and Bee twice as far to my right. "I'm it!" Arcee's voice reported. Within the next five minutes, the role of "it" passed from Arcee to Bee, to me, to Sides, and finally to Sunny.

I was hiding behind a tree, trying to catch my breath. My breathing was ragged from running, but I was still somehow managing to be laughing a bit. I had just gotten Sunny off my tail and was pretty proud of it. ...At least I _thought_ I'd lost him. I let out a surprised squeak as he grabbed me from behind, dangling me upside down by my right leg. "Tag." Sunny said with a smug smile as my shirt flipped down for a moment. I caught it before I flashed the yellow Lambo, but my belly had been showing for a moment.

"What was that?" Sunny asked in all seriousness, his smug smile sliding off his face. "What was what?" I asked, still short of breath. He adjusted me so that I was sitting on the palm of his left servo. He gently lifted the edge of my shirt. "Hey!" I protested, not understanding and trying to yank the cloth back down. "Oh stop it, I thought I saw something." Sunny said. "Time out. What's going on?" Sides said, materializing from the maze of trees. "Good question." I said to Sides. Sunny ignored us and used his index finger to gently nudge the edge of my shirt up to my bellybutton. A dark purple patch dominated the area. "I knew I saw something. You ok?" Sunny said. "It's just a bruise. I'm fine." I insisted, waving a hand at the overprotective Lambo. Sides caught my hand mid-wave. Gently turning it over, he revealed an angry slash coming down from my index finger all the way across my palm. It was caked in dried blood, which had stopped the bleeding it had obviously been doing. "Hailey's hurt." Sides said seriously, and I knew he'd said it on the comm as well as aloud. "What?" Arcee said, sounding concerned. "I'm fine! Really!" I insisted. Arcee and Bee materialized just as Sides had done. Bee beeped at me, questioning what happened. "It's just a bruise and a scratch." I said, trying to ease them. "Did you fall?" Sunny asked. "No. I probably got the bruise from when Sides poked me, and the scratch from when I tagged Bee. No big deal. No one's fault." I said. "I'm ruining your fun." I said sadly, seeing all their concerned expressions. "And over nothing! I'm fine!" I added. "We care if you're ok." Sides said. "You're going to Ratchet."

* * *

Hey guys. It's been a while. So I finally sat my aft down and finish this chapter that I've had half-done sitting in my computer for weeks. So this is just a chance for me to get some fun-time with the Movieverse 'Bots. I promise this will actually have some meaning though, you'll see. And, I actually know where I'm going from here to the end now! Yay! Finally an end to this monster story! Now I just actually have to write it. Oh joy. Hopefully the next update will be quicker. Sorry to keep you waiting.


	91. Holoforms

I was dragged to the Med-Bay, despite my protests. Both Ratchets were there along with Jolt. First Aid was off to the side, welding together a minor wound on Movieverse Sideswipe. (The G1 and Movieverse Ironhides had gotten a little carried away when trying to out show-off each other with their weapons, and a piece of resulting shrapnel had cut an energon line in Sideswipe's arm.) First Aid, ever diligent, didn't look away from his work when we walked in, all other heads turned to us however.

"What did you two do this time?" G1 Ratchet sarcastically asked. "No one looks injured." Jolt said, ignoring the sarcasm and looking for wounds. "That's because they're overreacting." I said, obviously annoyed. "We were playing tag and we noticed that Hailey was hurt." Sideswipe stated, ready to take a wrench to the head. Upon hearing that, Ratchet held his palm out for me, and Sideswipe dumped me onto it. Setting me on the available berth, Ratchet pulled his scanner from subspace. A blue light shined over me, and turned red over my hand and abdomen. Movieverse Ratchet took my hand and turned it over, sending a scan from his own optics across it. The tingle of the scan was painful over my cut, but I didn't say anything. "Minor injury." He stated. G1 Ratchet nudged the edge of my shirt up to reveal the deep purple bruise flowering there. "Same here." he reported. "See guys, I told you it was no big deal. "No, they were right to bring you." Movieverse Ratchet said. "But I thought you said it was minor?" I asked. "Yes, but this cut is covered in bacteria. You would have had a nasty infection that would have probably turned your entire hand red and swollen by the number of bacteria present." I stared at my injured right hand as if it were contaminated. "And that bruise nearly caused internal bleeding." G1 Ratchet added. "Oh, fun." I said.

"Anyway, that cut can easily be treated with antibiotics, and-" G1 Ratchet said, turning to grab the things he'd need. But he was cut off by Movieverse Ratchet. "May my apprentice handle this one? He hasn't had much experience on humans yet, so a minor case like this would be perfect practice." "But of course, no better way to learn than by doing." G1 Ratchet said. Jolt seemed excited and quickly took up the needed supplies. Setting them on the berth, I assumed he'd start working, but he instead walked away. He went close to the wall and transformed. Movieverse Ratchet walked toward the car and came back with something on his palm which I didn't see until he set it next to me; a person. He was fair-skinned, had short black hair, a blue jacket over a black T-shirt, bootcut jeans, black shoes and piercing blue eyes much like mine. I was extremely confused, and displayed that fact plainly on my face apparently because the mystery man replied "What? You look like you've never seen a holoform before." It was Jolt's voice! "Jolt?" I asked. He nodded. "You've seriously never seen a holoform?" Jolt asked up to the G1 bots, mostly Ratchet. "No, never." Ratchet said. "They're excellent tools for blending in on Earth, I'm surprised you don't have them." Movieverse Ratchet said. "You have one too?" I asked. "But of course." "I thought those only happened in FanFiction..." I mumbled. "Wheeljack will have a field day with this." Ratchet said. Leaving Jolt to tend to me, the two Ratchets left to discuss the new discovery with the Optimi and Wheeljack. Jolt wrapped gauze around my abdomen to pad the wound, and after disinfecting my hand, that was wrapped in gauze as well. The bandages were tight but not constricting, and completely comfortable. "I thought you had no experience?" I asked of him, curling and uncurling the fingers experimentally to make the bandage move with my palm. "What can I say, I've got a good teacher." Jolt said just before his holoform faded out of existence. He stood in robot mode and went over to talk with First Aid, who had finished Movieverse Sideswipe's repairs. My group left, dispersing to their duties and me retiring to my room and the internet.

About a week later, Wheeljack had the new tech made up. Unfortunately, the G1 bots' systems weren't compatible with the Movieverse bots' holomatter generators. Wheeljack had used their tech as a starting platform, and a few explosions later had the final product. The G1 bots had to use a small device the size of a standard cellphone which had a plug on the back that went into a slot on their dashboards. Both systems had their advantages. The G1 system had to insert the device before they could activate a holoform, unlike the Movieverse bots who had the tech built in. However, the Movieverse bots had to stay within 100 yards of their vehicular forms otherwise their holoforms fizzled out of existence. The G1 bots could go as far as they wanted without fizzling out. To deactivate the holoform, the Movieverse bots could do it at will just like activating it, while the G1 bots had to disengage the device.

When Wheeljack had built enough devices for all the G1 bots, he ended his lesson on how to use them with the statement "Remember, you're bound by the laws of physics, but not necessarily reality." Some bots took the "not bound by reality" to mean crazy colored hair. As examples, Wheeljack had light pastel blue hair and Sideswipe had bright red hair.

There were a lot more humans on the Ark for the next few days as the G1 bots played with their new toy and their new heightened sensitivity to the world around them. Not to be left out, the Movieverse bots were also usually in holoform. The very Cybertronian base had become suddenly exceedingly human.

* * *

(((A/N: Told you the last chapter would have meaning later on! :D Yeah, I'm sure you wanted something longer and more interesting, but at least it's something. I'll try to get back to this story, but all my stories really need to be updated. That's what I get for starting 5 running stories. *sigh* Reviews are love and I'll try to not leave you guys for so long this time.)))


	92. Battle at the Solar Plant

Sirens were going off everywhere. The Decepticons were attacking another solar power plant. There were plenty of those in Octomotro to be attacked. The Movieverse humans and I convinced the bots to bring us along for evacuation purposes. Sam, Leo, Mikaela, and Simmons rode with Movieverse Bumblebee. Lennox hitched a ride with Movieverse Ironhide. "Jump in, kid." Lennox said from Ironhide's drivers seat. I climbed in without complaint. In the back of my head, I noted that his seats were very comfortable and that I'd have to get the G1 bots to get upholstery. The seat belts snaked themselves over Lennox and I. Lennox didn't react at all, but I stiffened for a second. Ironhide disregarded it and drove out with the mass of Autobots.

* * *

We were dropped off behind the lines of battle. Most of the humans had vacated the area as soon as the 'Cons showed up. We entered the buildings to search for stragglers and injured. I had the arm of a worker with a bleeding leg from being kicked by Starscream slung around my shoulders. I got him to a building behind Autobot lines and set him inside near two other injured people and the rest of the stragglers, five in total. The entire crew of the plant consisted of 57 people since it was a large facility. Most had escaped in their cars, but these few poor people's cars had been either crushed or blown up.

I headed back out of the safe house and saw Megatron and Optimus exchanging blows. Megatron thrust his knee into Optimus' abdomen, throwing him back. The blow threw Optimus' balance calibrators out of whack, and Megatron took the opportunity to rip an entire building from the ground, leaving only the foundation behind. Optimus stood just in time for Megatron to chuck the building at him. I winced at the mere thought of enduring a hit that hard. His entire chest was caved inward, and the glass of the windshield completely gone, even one of his optics was cracked. Optimus reported over the comm. "Battle computer down. I'm a sitting duck." "Time to headmaster up. No arguing Prime. I'll be there in a few seconds." I radioed back.

I sprinted for Optimus, but Megatron didn't play fair. He literally kicked Optimus while he was down, sending him rolling a few yards. Luckily, those few yards happened to be in my direction. "Open up, big guy." I said urgently. The hatch to the headmaster entrance on the back of his head opened only half way, the mechanism was damaged. I squeezed through and it shut behind me. "C'mon, stand up. I got this." I encouraged, still a bit breathless from running. Optimus did just that. Once the room was no longer on its side, I quickly suited up and assumed control. I immediately swung a fist in Megatron's direction. Megatron knew Optimus' battle computer was down, so the hit surprised him, and I got him full in the face. A few bits of his dentas fell out. He threw a punch of his own which I dodged. "Focus your energy on internal repairs, and let me know when you're back up and running so I can release control. I dunno how well I'll fair against Megsy." I said to Optimus without taking my mind away from the fight. Megatron was surprisingly fast. The only advantage I had was that he wasn't familiar with my style of fighting like he was with Optimus'. Unfortunately, that advantage wouldn't last for long.

It went on for about 10 minutes, with me mostly dodging. By now, I was starting to take hits, whereas in the beginning I'd had the upper hand. "Minimal repairs complete." Optimus reported. I happily let go of control.

With noting else to do, I stayed where I was. I left the headmaster suit on so that I could see outside. Megatron dominated my field of vision, but in the farthest edges of my vision, I could see his G1 minions battling G1 and Movieverse Autobots alike. The Movieverse 'Cons were nowhere in sight. _They just couldn't get along as well with their movie counterparts as we did. No surprise there. _I thought. Most of the G1 'Cons were having a laserfire battle with the G1 'Bots. There were a few unfortunate 'Cons in servo-to-servo combat with the Movieverse 'Bots, who are much more violent than their G1 counterparts. They have to be, since they're so few in number. The jet triplets were ganging up on Movieverse Optimus, and losing. All four combatants were battered, but Optimus looked pristine in comparison to the bedraggled seekers. The servo-to-servo fighters were getting farther along than the gun-wielders. A particularly hard blow to Starscream's cockpit by Movieverse Optimus inspired a few 'Bots to drop their weapons and jump into the thick of it. Within moments every Autobot was deep in close range combat with a 'Con. The 'Cons were outnumbered 2 to 1, and yet they stayed. _Idiots_. I thought with a smirk.

With Optimus back in control, and all the other 'Cons preoccupied, I was doing nothing where I was. _I feel useless! There must be a way I can help!_ I wracked my brains, and a hare-brained scheme came to me. I opened a comm link to G1 Optimus and said "I've got an idea! Don't ask questions, just rip off part of Megatron's leg plating." Optimus said nothing as he waited for the opportune moment, then lunged down and tore away the black armor from Megatron's lower left leg as Megatron stumbled forward, following a hard punch that didn't connect. Megatron dealt a hard blow to Optimus' back once he steadied himself. I then took off my sensor suit. Once the intricate mesh of wires was off, I walked up to the door in the back of Optimus' head and hit the red emergency escape button, causing the door to flip open. Once on Optimus' shoulder, I grabbed the door and shut it. The action was similar to shutting a car trunk. I had to put forth effort to not fall. Optimus and Megatron were fighting again, meaning Optimus was moving. I climbed down carefully, and made it to the back of his knee joint when a particularly tough jostle made me lose my foothold. I fell and ended up rolling down the rest of his leg like a ramp, stopping in the street about 3 feet away. I stood up and brushed off the broken glass and gravel. The glass and rock that littered the ground had only caused superficial scrapes to appear all over my exposed skin and a hole appeared in the fabric at my shoulder, revealing the bruised flesh behind it.

Now that I had reached the ground, I had to think of a way to get to Megatron without him noticing. I didn't think he'd pay too much attention to me, but running up to him from the front was definitely a bad idea. I ran behind a building, which happened to be some kind of employee lounge, and I noticed that the back door was open. I decided to see if there was anything I could use.

I stepped out about 2 minutes later wearing rubber gloves. I had a roll of electrical tape around my wrist like a bracelet. I carried box cutter with a stainless steel blade. I put the plastic cover on it, then shoved the blade in my pocket. The fact that I was so comfortable stealing worried me. I blamed my stay with Starscream. _But it's not like I'm doing it just for fun. I'm commandeering it for a war effort._ I convinced myself. I put the thought behind me and ran back outside.

I popped my head around the corner of the building to see Optimus and Megatron still locked in combat. I thought (and hoped) I was out of immediate visual range. I darted across the pavement and ducked behind another building. I hid behind the corner and stole a quick glance which revealed that Megatron was very close. I looked again and was elated to find that Megatron had his wounded leg stretched out behind him, using it for support against Optimus. Before I could lose all my courage, I sprinted for his leg. Megatron didn't even notice me until I had reached his leg.

I jumped into the opening. I maneuvered away from the gaping hole, weaving my way between wires and circuit-boards. As soon as I was away from the cool air wafting in from the aperture, I realized that the inside of Megatron was an utter inferno. I had found a small space in the maze of wires, circuits, gears, cogs, and energon lines. I clung to a thin pipe which I assumed was an energon line. I steadied my feet on 2 circuit-boards. Everything was moving, jolting, and jostling in the small passageway. This space was larger than others I had found. I was just wondering why when it started to contract. In less than a second I realized that it was in his knee, the space was so nothing would get crushed when the joint moved. That also explained the large amount of gears in the area. I scrambled upwards. My left ankle was twisted painfully just as I cleared the contracting space, but I emerged unscathed. "Frag!" I fumed, massaging my twisted ankle. I pushed the discomfort out of my mind and went back to the task at hand. _Ok, I'm in his thigh now. I doubt anything important will be here._ I thought, trying to figure out where I could do the most damage. _Upwards it is then._

G1 Megatron

_It's inside me! It's INSIDE me!_ I was disgusted, and feeling her crawl up my leg wasn't helping. When she'd stopped in my knee joint, I tried to crush her by bending my knee as far as it could go, causing me to stand on one leg. That gave Prime the perfect opportunity to tackle me. I gritted my dentas as the full weight of the Autobot leader came down upon me. He obviously wanted to keep me from hurting his pet insect. He knew she couldn't be dead because there was no blood, and the look of disgust and/or disappointment that had surely crossed my facial plating.

Instead of beating me as we usually did to each other, he pinned my servos to my side. "Yes, Prime. Wouldn't want to hit me now huh? Might rattle the precious cargo!" I mocked. I decided to turn this to my advantage. I was now untouchable. I broke free of his grip and stood. I punched the side of Optimus' helm with all the force I could muster, leaving a good sized dent. He stood and in his moment of hesitation, I pounced.

Hailey

I smacked into yet another gear. _What the frag are they doing out there? Nevermind. I've got work to do._ I was making slow progress. His hip had been hard to navigate because of the large number of gears and cogs there. The moving and jostling didn't help. I'd been thrown back and forth multiple times, and almost been crushed by a pair of gears I'd been jostled into.

I finally reached his spark chamber. _So now I'm in his chest._ I rested my hand against the metal of his spark casing. It was warm to the touch even in the overheated space. I pulled out my blade and tried to jam it in a seam in the case. No matter how I tried, the case wouldn't open. That was what I had expected. I turned away from his spark to two bunches of cables. _Ooh! These look important!_ I used my blade to slice the cables. Energy crackled on the end of them, but my rubber gloves protected me because they didn't conduct the lethal sparks. One bunch of wires looked coppery under the insulation and the other one was blue metal wires. I used my electrical tape to attach one copper wire to a blue wire. I did the same with the other two.

The jostling I'd been bracing myself against changed, we seemed to be going backwards now. Clumsily. I climbed up about two feet and repeated the procedure on two more bunches if important-looking wires.

G1 Optimus

_ What the frag is Hailey doing?_ Just a moment ago, Megatron had gone from fighting viciously to stumbling backwards. He steadied himself on the building behind him, making a few bricks crumble under his fingers. A few nanocliks later, he slumped to the ground. He was leaning against the building so that he was sitting up. His helm lolled to the side and his limbs were limp. He resembled a human Raggedy-Anne doll. I tentatively stepped closer. I stopped my advance when he yelled "Back off Prime! I'm not offline!"

Hailey

Megatron fell. At least, I assume he did. Whatever he did, I'd lost my foothold. I tumbled painfully, smacking into gears until I slammed onto a semi-flat surface. It was bigger than most of the other devices I'd seen. I knocked on it. It sounded... hollow? I took off my necklace, set it to its lowest heat, and melted a hole in the top of the mystery object. I peeked down into the hole. There was a shallow pool of glowing pink liquid. _I'm sitting on his energon tanks? _I sat for a moment. Another idea came to me, so I grabbed a single wire. I cut it and used electrical tape to close off the shorter end of the hanging wire. Taking hold of the longer end of the wire, I scrambled around machinery with it in tow, unwinding the wire for a solid minute, resulting in a long extension of wire. I fed the end of the wire through the hole I'd made so that it hung about a foot into the tank. Being careful to keep the wire hanging there like that, I climbed up, feeding the wire through my fingers the whole way. I was careful to go only straight up.

I finally encountered Megatron's shoulder plating. I used my necklace to blow a hole in lieu of an exit. I popped my head out and took a deep breath of cool air. "Finally! It's fragging hot in there!" I called to no one in particular. I climbed out of the hole. I shoved the wire downwards and yelled "Bombs away!" as I dived through the broken window of the building Megatron was slumped against. The wire fell into the energon causing Megatron's entire front side to be blown off in a gout of purple flames. Optimus was knocked backwards so that he fell on his back. As Optimus righted himself, I poked out of the window. "I'm glad I don't have to clean that up!" I said cheerily to Optimus. He picked me up and that's when I noticed his singed paint job. "Sorry about your paint." I apologized. "Don't worry about it." he replied. I then looked down to myself. I was greasy, as well as covered in superficial damage. Bruises were blooming everywhere from my rough ride inside Megatron. My thoughts were interrupted however as a nasally voice cried out. "Decepticons! Megatron has fallen! Now I, Starscream, lead!" Everyone had turned when they'd seen the purple flames. Starscream was elated to see Megatron in his current state. Megatron was dented, scratched, his bare circuitry from his waist to his chest was showing, and he was in stasis lock. "Decepticons: retreat!" Soundwave called. All the 'Cons ignored Starscream's protests and took off. Dirge, Ramjet, and Thrust used grappling hooks to lift Megatron and carry him away while in plane mode. Starscream had no choice but to follow.

"Later, Decepticreeps!" I called to their battered and retreating forms. The Autobots cheered for their victory, but the celebrations didn't last long. Before I even realized what was happening, My feet left the ground. I peered out of the cockpit of the F-22 I was now inside. Something sprayed in my face, and the world went dark.


	93. The Warehouse

I woke up in an unfamiliar place, on a cold cement slab. Movieverse Megatron held me down to the table, having to kneel over me to do so. My face was wet and freezing. A few ice cubes slid off the cement block serving as my bed and Megatron used his free hand to throw away a tin bucket. A distant clank told me that the metal bucket had hit the ground. From what I could tell, Megatron had doused me in ice water to wake me up. Rude awakening much?

"Let's see why those sorry excuses for Decepticons were so interested in you, shall we?" He purred close to my face. He smelled like rust and seaweed. He hadn't been in the sea in a while so the seaweed scent was faint, thank god. I noticed that there were still grains of sand in the treads on his feet, probably from the Egyptian desert. He had one finger on each of my limbs, each splitting at the end so that he could pinch me in place, just like he had done to Sam. "Interested in me? Why? Who are you?" I asked, panic in my voice. "Quit playing dumb. We have the data files from the other Decepticons' base. If you even grant the unworthy maggots the name." Megatron said, rolling his blood red optics. "Then lemme say, there's this new product. It's called cologne. You might wanna try it. You smell like an old buoy." I commented. Megatron bared his teeth and glared at me. Something similar to a growl came from deep in his chest; a very successful attempt to intimidate me.

"Why me? Seriously, you don't think I've had enough kidnappings with one universe's worth of 'Cons?" I asked sarcastically. Megatron glared at me and said "That's why you're here. If the other Decepticons wanted you so badly, you must be useful." Megatron explained. "Believe me, I'm pretty boring." I said. "**SILENCE!**" He roared, effectively cutting me off. I squeaked and tried to burrow into the concrete. "Hold your tongue, _**or I'll cut it out!**_" He ordered. I froze and gaped in fear. _Ok... Pissing him off: BAD idea. _I mentally squeaked as I shivered, whether from the lingering cold of the ice or fear of death I was unsure.

Ravage prowled up next to me. With a nod from Megatron, Ravage opened his chest plates. The same Decepticon from Revenge of the Fallen that had almost cut open Sam's head crawled out. "Not you!" I groaned, straining my neck to try and keep my head away from him. He clambered onto my chest and said "Oh? Have we met? You seem familiar with me, but I don't recall you." Scalpel, as I believe the little 'Con's name was, said. "Get off!" I yelled, even though I knew he'd ignore me as I wiggled in an attempt to get him away. He was completely unaffected by my movements as he said "Tsk tsk. How rude. Hmm... Let's see. Bring a probe!" A worm-like robot was presented. "Oh god no!" I groaned, straining still further. Scalpel paid no mind, and stepped forward onto my neck. His pointed feet felt unpleasant on my exposed skin. He reached forward and pulled my mouth open as he guided the probe in. I let him at first, but then I snapped my mouth shut and bit his toothpick-like hands as well as catching the worm's head. He yelped in surprise and yelled at me to let go. Megatron glared daggers at me as I twisted my head to the side and threw Scalpel and the probe off me. Megatron looked like he wanted to kill me (as if he hadn't already). He tightened his grip until my bones were on the verge of breaking under the stress. I yelled in pain. Megatron told Scalpel something in Cybertronian. Scalpel quickly sprayed the same stuff Starscream had used to put me to sleep earlier into my face. I held my breath and tried to blow it away. The small amount I actually inhaled was only enough to make me a dizzy.

At this point, Megatron had had enough. He tightened his grip further and I heard a sickening crack. There went my ulna, and probably my radius too. He suddenly released me, and before I could move, he stabbed me. His pointed metal finger ran me completely through, clanking against the concrete slab on the other side. I instinctually grabbed his finger. My pupils got smaller and my eyes widened. Megatron pulled back his finger, sliding the blood-slick digit out of my hands easily. I slumped back to the cement. My bloodstained hands fell limply on the cement slab. I felt my own blood start to spill to the floor, soaking my clothes in the process. The pain and blood loss made me black out quickly.

Movieverse Megatron

_Finally! _I thought. A probe was quickly brought. It was the last probe that had been brought with us into this universe. The probe was in and out in mere moments without the girl's struggles slowing it down. What it had found out was the reason she was interesting: she knew much more about us than any human should. I saw factoids flying across the display about the idiotic Decepticons from this universe, as well as facts about us. There was also things there about mechs and femmes that I had never seen the likes of, but definitely Cybertronian nonetheless. My state of being impressed quickly shut down as I saw how she knew so much; she was a (here I had to pause to look up a proper term) "fangirl". She had seen multiple cartoon series, movies, and other media forms of the like about our race. After a brief internet search, I found multiple fan websites that could tell us all she knew and more. Now that she was useless, I called to Starscream. "Yes, Lord Megatron?" asked my SIC. "She is no longer of use to me. Put her with the other prisoners." Starscream bowed his head and set off to his task.

Movieverse Starscream

I scooped the bleeding human off the blood soaked concrete. I carried her to the back storage room where Ravage was still pacing around the prisoners. The prisoners had stopped shivering and shrinking away from Ravage as they had in the beginning, but they all kept a nervous eye on him. Ravage sat on his haunches as I strode over and stooped. I dropped the girl and she fell the few remaining feet to the ground. I walked away thinking _It would be better to just kill all the humans now. No use having them around taking up space._ I rolled my optics as I watched Ravage go back to his prowling watch, never taking his optics off the group. _Pfft. As if they could do anything._

* * *

Hailey

I was awakened by light taps to the sides of my face. I finally shook off the unconsciousness I'd fallen into when someone started lightly shaking my right arm. I opened my eyes to be confronted by a barrier of people. They formed a semicircle around me and an unfamiliar woman was seated on her heels next to me. I was propped up against a wooden crate. "What happened?" I asked, still a bit befuddled. "You were hurt badly by those robots. I tried to fix you up a bit. Key word being tried." said the lone woman in the group, the one seated next to me. She was petite and skinny, and she had brown hair trimmed into a pixie cut. Overall, she seemed very friendly.

I tried to sit up, but quickly sat back again because of the pain that movement caused. Both my wrists were sore, as well as my ankles. A jacket was tied around my left arm in such a way that it made a sling. Looking at the arm bound within it, I saw that it was bent, and I don't mean at the elbow. I looked at my right wrist and saw a deep purple bruise which would no doubt perfectly match the shape of Megatron's fingers. Just the thought of him touching me was gross. I wiped my wrist on my jeans to get rid of the feeling.

"So, why are you guys here?" I asked of the group of men and woman. "We worked here. They showed up and made us prisoners. That's all we know." said a man in the circle. His warehouse uniform had a name tag attached that said his name was Richard. The female warehouse worker who had helped me added "The robotic cat was watching us up until about ten minutes ago, and was replaced by the triangle guy over there." while jerking her thumb in Starscream's direction. Her name tag said her name was Judy. "So, I assume that none of you have a clue as to who these guys are?" I asked of the group. They all shook their heads. I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Starscream had had his optics shuttered and was leaning against the oversized door frame. Once he'd heard me, he opened his optics and looked straight to me without turning his helm. I locked eyes with him for a moment, but when he didn't make any move to stop me, I continued. "These guys are aliens, but I'm sure you could have figured out that much. These ones you see here are from one of the two factions of their race. They've been locked in civil war for millennia. These are Decepticons." I said. "Oh, I heard about 'em. They were on the news." Someone piped up. "Yup. That's them. They basically want to kill our race in a mass genocide, and eventually rule the universe. The Autobots, the other faction, want to stop them and live in peace." I explained. Starscream kept staring at me in what appeared to be curiosity. I moved myself a little, settling down for a long story. The movement brought pain, but it also made me aware of the makeshift bandage wrapped around my waist. It was stemming the bleeding for now at least.

Moving on, I continued. "Over there, in the door frame, is Starscream. He's the second in command of the Decepticon forces." I continued. Starscream raised his optic ridges at me. I ignored him and continued listing off the mechs, pointing them out as I went. "The one in the other room there, with the helicopter blades on his back is Blackout. The other one, the black one, is Barricade. The tan one's Bonecrusher, the cat is Ravage, and the last one in there, the one with the spindly fingers and weird head is Megatron. He's the leader of the Decepticons." I finished."How do you know all this?" Starscream asked in unison with Judy. Starscream passed Judy a fleeting glance, but quickly went back to me. "Oh, hey Screamer." I said to the Decepticon, as if just noticing him. "Excuse me?" Starscream asked, surprised that I'd had the gall to call him that. "Oh, I'm sorry. Do you prefer Squeaky? Doritoscream, maybe?" Starscream glared at me and pulled out his gun, causing the others to step backwards and shiver. I didn't move and kept a steady, calm gaze fixed on him. If I was going to die, let it not be while cowering. Ravage chose that moment to slink back into the room. "Oh, your shift's over, Screamer." I said, gesturing out the door. Starscream growled. "Starscream!" Megatron called from the other room. Starscream looked extremely irritated, but stowed his weapon and went to his leader.

I smiled triumphantly. "How did you do that?" Judy asked. "Do what?" I asked. "Stand up to him! None of us could have kept our cool like that." Judy said with the others also looking to me expectantly. "Well, It's not the first time I've been kidnapped by Decepticons. Granted, not these ones, but it's not that different." I said dismissively. "You've been kidnapped before?" Judy asked, surprised. "Yes, I've almost been killed multiple times. No big deal." I answered. "If they're gonna kidnap me, I refuse to be an obedient little captive." I added. Every answer I gave raised another question. Ravage eventually got bored and lay down behind the protective circle. He shuttered his optic, but listened intently.

* * *

I was in the middle of explaining that the Autobots and Decepticons can transform into Earth vehicles and listing off the alt modes of the 'Cons present when my comm link went off. I heard my mother's voice saying "Hailey? Hailey where are you?" I didn't want to get my comm link taken away, so I said to Judy "So, how long have the 'Cons kept you guys in this warehouse?" Judy gave me an odd look and said "Hours, I guess? I dunno, they destroyed all our cell phones so I don't have a clock." I pulled out my iPod, luckily it was in my non-blood-soaked pocket, and quickly typed out "Distress call, just go with it." in notes with the ring of men blocking it from view of Ravage. After she'd read it, I deleted the note and shoved my iPod back into my dry pocket. Ravage perked his metallic ears up as he detected an outgoing comm link. I quickly shut off my comm as he stood and knocked men out of the way to get a good look at me. He glared at me, but finding the signal gone, he went back to sitting. When the men tried to circle around again, he growled at them. He didn't trust us anymore. So we all were forced to get in a line against the crates. I decided to pick up the dropped conversation. "Where was I? Oh right. Starscream is an F-22 Raptor fighter jet..."


	94. To The Emergency Room

Judy's bandage had helped, but by now the blood was seeping through. One of the men donated a large strip from his shirt to help. With that tied over the other bandage, it was stained red but there was no flow. For the past twenty minutes, there had been a lingering pain, but it was bearable as long as I didn't move. Just when it seemed hopeless, the warehouse door was knocked down. Movieverse and G1 Bee, G1 and Movieverse Prime, and G1 Ratchet poured through the newly made hole and started a shoot-off with the 'Cons. Megatron managed to slip away from the fighting and pointed his cannon arm at me and the other humans. "Prime, I would stop if I were you. Surrender, or the humans are dead." Megatron threatened. I stood up painfully and finally pulled off my necklace. I held both halves in my right hand (my good one) and fired my null ray at Megatron. He had been looking to the Autobots (who had stopped firing) so he never knew what hit him.

I lead the others out to where the Autobots were. Barricade made a lunge for us, But Movieverse Bee jumped over our tight group and fought him off. The other Autobots provided cover fire for the humans to scramble out of the hole they'd made. Once out in the parking lot, I called "Go! Get out of here!" They all pulled out their car keys and sprinted to their respective vehicles. As they peeled out of the lot, G1 Bee scooped me off the ground and ran into G1 Optimus' trailer. Bee exited so Ratchet could enter. I saw both Bees and Movieverse Prime still in the fray before the door shut. G1 Optimus hitched up to the trailer and pulled out of the lot. I heard shooting from outside which told me that the 'Cons had put up retaliation, but it ended quickly. I didn't need to be told to know that they were staying behind and keeping the 'Cons occupied so that the warehouse workers and I could escape.

Ratchet pounced on me as soon as the firing had stopped. He peeled off the two bandages, which had bled through and was flowing again from the exertion of running. He cleaned it off and re-bandaged it with thick gauze that actually kept in the blood. He got rid of the sling and wrapped it tightly in gauze. "This isn't good enough. If you don't get to a doctor soon, you might yet perish." Ratchet said, mostly to himself. "But you're a doctor." I pointed out. "I mean a human doctor. You've lot too much blood and you're going to need a cast. I can't do anything for those. I'm trained to heal Cybertronians, not humans." Ratchet explained.

"Prime, open the trailer door. I'm going out." Ratchet said over the comm. A moment later, the trailer door dropped. Ratchet picked me up and folded down into alt mode. (How I went from his palm to his cab I'll never understand.) He sped out the door and his sirens were blaring as he tore down the road. I hadn't realized how late it was. I was kidnapped some time in the early afternoon, and by now the sun had pretty much set and the first stars were showing. The last sliver of pink had disappeared from the sky by the time Ratchet pulled into the hospital parking lot.

* * *

I don't remember much. I remember sterile rooms and lots of white uniforms. Then nothing.

My first real memories were waking up in a hospital room. I knew this immediately by the smell of disinfectants and the beeping of a heart monitor. My eyes came into focus to see my family was in the room as well. Oddly enough, my fuzzy mind's first thought had nothing to do with my family's presence. I said something intelligent like "Oh... that's my beep..." looking at the heart monitor cord attached to my body. My ears felt like they were covered in cotton, but I understood that my family had snapped to attention and immediately started a frantic round of 20 Questions.

I couldn't understand anything for a moment of two, but the cotton finally lifted and the blurry edges became solid. "Where am I? How long have I been out?" I asked, coherency finally in my grasp. _Sedatives are weird..._ I thought briefly as my parents started to answer at the same time, making a garbled sentence that was unintelligible. Right about then, a redheaded lady in her early 30s walked into the room wearing a hospital uniform. "Ah, I see you're awake. Due to the nature of your injuries, we had to report them to the police. Officers will be here shortly so you can tell them what happened. It's standard procedure, nothing to worry about. Just thought you'd like to know. Also, here's your cellphone. We used its contact list to get a hold of your parents." She said. As she stepped up to my cot to return my phone, I saw that her name tag read Amy. Amy smiled and left us. As soon as she was gone, my family and I shared a look that told me that we all had the same thought. _Police? Oh frag..._

* * *

Just as Amy had said, officers showed up shortly. My family was shooed out and I was left alone with the two strangers. One had short light brown hair tied back into a ponytail, she looked to be in her early 40s. The officer next to her was much younger, maybe in his 20s, and had jet black hair. "I am Officer Wilson, and this is Officer Smith." The elder female cop introduced bluntly. "Now, what happened to you?" Wilson asked. Her brown eyes looked lifeless and downright bored. Smith's green eyes held pity. When I made eye contact, he quickly looked away and seemed fascinated with watching my heart-lines which still played across the monitor. I was silent. What was I supposed to say? _"Oh, I just got stabbed by a giant alien robot is all. Would you like my __straitjacket size now?" _

Getting no response, Wilson continued "According to my reports, you have been stabbed clean through your midsection. Nothing major was damaged, but it caused quite a bit of blood loss. Correct?" I took my eyes away from watching the soon-to-be-my blood drip from the bag overhead, through the tube and disappear into my wrist and nodded at her. "And your left arm is almost completely broken. This is also accompanied by deep bruises on each of your limbs and superficial scrapes and bruises. Am I missing anything?" Wilson added. I shook my head. "Then how did you get all these injuries? Are you being abused?" Wilson asked. "What? No! It's nothing like that! God no!" I said, my eyes widening in horror. Smith finally looked at me again as Wilson asked "Then what happened?"

Well, the truth was out. _Lying it is._ I thought. "I was taking a walk. At the park near my house. I was attacked by a man. He demanded I empty my pockets, but I tried to run. He caught up with me and tackled me to the ground, hence the superficial scrapes. He tried to hold me down, and he ended up breaking my arm. He stabbed me, took my wallet, and ran away. I made the 911 call about then." I fibbed. Wilson nodded, taking notes. "Could you describe this man?" Wilson asked. "He was big... and tall. I dunno, it was dark and he had a ski mask." I lied again. Wilson scribbled some more, and stood. "Thank you miss, have a nice evening." Wilson said as if it was a line she said often. I flopped back onto my pillows. _Thank God that's over. Why is my life so complicated? Oh yeah, aliens._ I thought. _I just hope I'm a better lier than I think. _

Unfortunately, I was even worse than I thought.


	95. Investigation

Officer William Smith

Now back in the police precinct, Ms. Wilson and I could start the investigation. She stood over my desk, leaning against the side of it while a few papers that made up the rather small case file were scattered across the surface. I sat in the swivel chair facing the desk. Just when I thought this case was going to be open and shut, Wilson suddenly spoke up. "I don't trust that girl." Surprised, I looked up to her face. "What? Why would you say that?" I looked at her records. "She's totally clean. Nothing here stands out." I said. I remembered the face of the girl in the emergency room. She had looked broken. Her deep bruises were emphasized by her skin, paled from blood loss. And her arm was in a thick cast. I couldn't help but pity her. What had caught my attention almost even more than her obvious injuries however, had been her eyes. I'd never seen eyes that shade of blue.

"She was holding something back, and I get the feeling that it's something big." Wilson insisted. "Look, let's not jump to conclusions. Let's start with the basics. Let's trace the location of her 911 call." I said. I wasn't too convinced. I may have been a probie, but I'd learned quickly that Wilson had a tendency to go beyond the case when it wasn't necessary. I set down the papers and turned to the computer. I typed in her cell phone number, provided in her files, and let the computer log the areas of all her calls in the last 24 hours. The computer took a moment, then came a soft _Ping!_ when the search was done. A map of Octomotro popped onto the screen, and I instantly started scanning for the little yellow dot that would signify her call. Problem was, there was no dot. None at all. "What the? There are no calls at all." I told Wilson. She instantly snapped to attention. "Let's see if we can trace her phone." Wilson said, punching keys from over my shoulder. Little red dots showed her location every half hour. "According to these, she spent a lot of time in a warehouse on the far side of town. She was all the way across the city from where she said she was at the time of the attack." Wilson said as she scrolled across the map and various dots. "How did she get all the way over there?" I asked. Wilson ignored me and pulled up a log for anyone making calls in that area. Nothing. Not even any phones in the area but hers. Turning this new information over in my head, I slowly asked "Well if no one made a 911 call... How did she get an ambulance?" Wilson and I shared a look. She grabbed her keys off the desktop. I jotted down the address of the warehouse, scooped up the case file, and trotted after her. I didn't need a verbal command to know we were going on a road trip.

* * *

I was looking over her files again. She wasn't absent from school often, but when she was it was for long periods of time. She would disappear for a week or two, then come back. What was she gone for? At the top of her records was a picture of her, smiling for her school photo. Nothing like the sick girl I'd seen. I looked at her eyes in the picture. Instead of that piercing blue I was expecting, I saw green-blue eyes staring back at me. _How weird..._ I thought. These were only from the beginning of the year. Colored contacts, maybe?

"We're here." Wilson stated, parking the car. We'd arrived at the area that had held our victim for the majority of the day. "Woah." Was all I could think to say. There was an enormous hole where the warehouse door used to be. It almost looked like a giant had kicked the door in. "Well, the construction workers are here. Let's see if they can tell us what the heck happened." Wilson said, taking the first steps toward the workers repairing the building as she finished her sentence, leaving me to trot after her.

A few hours and a lot of interviews later, we got a whole lot of nothing. No one knew what the heck happened, and they had no idea who our victim was. "Well, the best place to get information is the source. And that's just what we'll do." Wilson said. "But she's still in the hospital." I pointed out. "She won't be in a few days. As soon as she's out, we'll follow her and she exactly what she's up to."

Hailey

I was poking at then new stitches in my side when Amy walked in. I yanked my shirt back down and felt a blush cover my face. She pretended she didn't notice. "You are free to go. Your family is here to pick you up." I nodded and threw the covers off. Before I even had a chance to attempt to stand on my own, my dad had already swept into the room and scooped me off the bed. I gratefully buried my face in the threads of the shirt covering his chest as he carried me out of the hospital.

* * *

By now, I'd been home two days. No one let me move around too much, which I was fine with. I planted myself in front of my laptop, and was content to stay there. I was definitely not at 100%, but I was getting better. About then, I got a call from Ratchet. I listened to him, and he asked me to report to the Ark. The way he said it, it didn't seem like I had a choice. I went to okay it with my parents anyway.

"Ratchet wants you at the Ark? Why?" my father asked. "He wants to learn more about human medicine. That's what he said anyway. I think he wants to make sure the doctors did it right. He's overprotective that way." I explained. "Are you up to that?" my mom worried. "Of course I am. Knowing the Autobots, my feet won't even touch the ground." I assured them. "Well, I guess that's okay then." My mom said with a nod of assent from my dad.

Suddenly the front door opened (That's what we get for leaving it unlocked). Bee's holoform stood in the open doorway. "Perfect!" he declared. He charged at me, and the next thing I knew, I was in his arms bridal style. The way he held me suggested I weighed little more than a feather. He then turned on his heel and started for the door. "Told you so! I'll see you guys later!" I called over Bee's shoulder. He walked out the door, using his foot to shut it behind him.

* * *

"How did you manage to do that?" I asked Bee, looking at his dashboard, as he drove toward the Ark. "I listened to your conversation through the door. All I had to do was crank up my audio sensitivity to hear you guys." he replied, mirth in his voice. "Well, I gotta give you props on that one." I laughed.

We reached the hiking trail in a few minutes. Bee used the maintenance road to get close to the hidden entrance to the Ark, but had to off-road the last few hundred feet. He transformed, and I ended up on his shoulder. I grabbed the horn on the side of his helm for support. "I still don't understand how that works." I said. "And you never will." Bee teased. I giggled, but my mirth was cut short by Bee. "Wait, quiet." He asked. I obliged, and being on my perch atop his shoulder, I couldn't help but look in the same direction as he did. Stopped on the repair road was a car with two people in police uniforms inside. Since the window was down, I could barely recognize them as the officers who had interrogated me at the hospital. The elder woman was flailing and screeching something along the lines of "GIANT ROBOT!" and quite a few colorful curse words. Her younger partner opted for stunned silence. As Bumblebee so eloquently put it, "Oh, _slag_."


	96. And Now Come The Crazies

"Now, would you say that these aliens are dangerous?" the news reporter asked. "No, the Autobots are on our side. I've been in contact with them daily for a whole year now, and I'm perfectly fine. I think my life's been improved by them, actually." I answered. The reporter gave a quick glance at the deep purple bruise which was poking out from under my jacket sleeve, and her overly cheerful smile fell for a split second. I self-consciously pulled my sleeve over the mark.

It had been about a week now since the incident with the officers. Word was now out that I'd been in direct and frequent contact with the aliens. And now the true reason for my trip to the ER was known, and made public by the one nurse who couldn't help but tweet about it. Thanks a lot, Amy. I could of course thank Officer Wilson and Officer Smith for being too fragging good at what they do. I just wanted to hang out with my alien friends unnoticed. Was that too much to ask? The whole globe seemed to think so. I got floods of emails asking about the Autobots daily. How did they even get my email? I have no idea. But I want to punch whoever is responsible.

As if flooding my email (despite how many times I make new accounts) wasn't bad enough, people openly gawk at me on the street. Some almost seem disappointed that the only car I ever get into in public actually has a driver. I'd taken to wearing sunglasses and a hoodie. (Without an Autobot logo on it. I couldn't even wear the symbol anymore, which made me very sad.)

Eventually the reporter dismissed me. As I was leaving the building, I flipped up my hoodie and slipped on my sunglasses. I tried to keep my head down. _Can I go unnoticed today?_ I silently asked. "They will bring our end!" a man in a sandwich board cried, grabbing my upper arms and shaking me. _I guess not._ I huffed internally. I'd been yelled at from a distance similarly. (Usually it was someone insisting that the aliens were going to kill us all, or turn us into slaves starting with me.) Unfortunately the shaking had dislodged my sunglasses. The man's eyes widened as my eyes became visible. My eyes were now apparently instantly distinguishable. (I'd even seen a few stores advertising colored contacts so you could look like "The Alien Girl." _Sigh_.) "You! It's you! You're the alien girl! You've got to get out now, before they brainwash you!" The man insisted. "They have not, and will never brainwash anyone!" I replied venomously, pulling out of his grasp and snatching my sunglasses off the ground. "They've already brainwashed you!" The man cried, taking flight away from me. Good riddance.

Now everyone was looking, and many were starting to crowd, eager to get their question in. Amid the babble, I put my finger to my ear and pressed a button on my comm link. That automatically sent a ping to Autobot headquarters. My plan of walking home was now out of the question. Within five minutes, a yellow bug pulled up to the curb. I shoved my way to the car. As I got in, I could hear people yelling "It's one of the aliens!" I ignored them and slammed the door shut. Bumblebee drove away, leaving my in silence for once. I sighed and lay down across the bench seat in the back.

"Rough day?" Bee asked.

"Yeah. Sorry I slammed your door back there. I can't take my frustration about the idiocy of humanity out on you." I apologized.

"Nah, don't worry about it. I'm a battle-hardened warrior, remember? And if it makes you feel any better, Ironhide got attacked by fangirls when he went out for patrol."

A short bark of laughter came from me at the image of teenage girls clinging to any available spot on a very disgruntled Ironhide.

"I still don't understand why there's such a controversy around you guys. Haven't they seen the cartoon? They can send you away, but then the Cons will slag us all. And yet Congress still debates it." I sighed, looking up at the roof of the cab as if it held some sort of panacea for all my woes.

"They just like to think that they have the power to make this all go away. To feel as if they have some power. Some choice. We'll just wait until interest dies down again, and everything will go back to normal." Bee attempted to calm me.

"No, Bee. Interest won't die down. Some, most of the world, was convinced it was fake last time. Now that there's a living, breathing human involved, and the same story has come up twice, it's harder to ignore." I lamented.

Bumblebee's holoform appeared in the driver's seat, and clasped my hand consolingly with the hand that wasn't on the steering wheel. "We'll make it work. We'll figure it out." he promised. I gave him a weak smile. Bumblebee, such the optimist.

He took me back to the Ark (Of course telling my parents that he was kidnapping me. They had no objection.) and spent the day trying to cheer me up. Sure enough, he successfully kept me distracted. And for the first time in a week, I felt normal again.


	97. Alliance

Wheeljack

"'Jack, what are you doing?" I jumped at the sound of Ratchet's voice. "Huh? Oh. Just tinkering with the portal again." I replied, sliding myself out from under said machine. "Well, I've got no patients, and I want to keep it that way, so I'll stick around." Ratchet said, getting down on the floor next to me. "What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, quirking an optic ridge at him. "I don't want to have to fix you after you blow yourself up." Ratchet smirked at me. I tapped the back of his helm with a wrench, mimicking his infamous punishment on unruly patients, but not nearly hard enough to so much as scratch his paint. I was probably the only mech in the universe who could get away with that, and I was gonna use that privilege. Ratchet smiled and caught the wrench I tossed to him. He stood up to work on a busted part of the archway as I slid back under the machine. We worked in companionable silence, in the way only best friends can.

* * *

About half a joor later, I was at the control box running a few diagnostics. "How's it looking?" Ratchet asked, peeking over my shoulder. "I see nothing wrong... I think a test run is in order." I said happily. "We better get Prime." Ratchet said. I nodded. "This is yours. I don't know where you put anything in this pig sty of yours." Ratchet said, handing over a wrench he'd almost subspaced out of habit. "Honestly, me neither." I admitted, setting the wrench hastily on the console. Ratchet laughed as we left.

Unfortunately, we didn't notice what happened as the door slid closed.

* * *

Starscream

I typed away at one of the consoles in the command room. Soundwave was at the console to my left, doing who knows what. Megatron sat up on his throne, optics blank and frame utterly still. If one didn't know any better, they may think that Megatron was in recharge. But I knew all too well that he was fully conscious, his processor going a megamile a klik plotting, as it was all too common for him to do.

The three of us were all instantly pulled from out previous activities as a crackly message suddenly dominated the screen over the communications center. "Lord Megatron! Do you copy?" Shockwave's voice barely fizzled over the comm. Megatron leapt up from his throne and almost ran to the communications console, where Soundwave was already tapping at the controls. When had the tape player gotten across the room?

Soundwave's servos were a blur across the control panel as he tried to improve the signal. "Shockwave! Report!" Megatron barked at the screen. "Lord Megatron, I have something to send to your location on Earth. Do you have a space bridge?" Megatron spun around to me. "We still have that space bridge receiver, do we not?" He asked. "Yes. In storage. We would only be able to receive with that." I answered quickly. "That is all I require. Get the thing operational, Starscream. You have two breems." I was dismissed by a wave of his hand, and he spun back around to address Shockwave. I hurried off to storage.

The fact that I fell back into old habits from my vorns as a scientist was troubling, but that was something to worry about later. I barely got the badly battered part operational under Megatron's time restriction.

The part was brought just outside the Annihilation. Megatron, Soundwave (all his cassettes deployed), the Conehead trine, and my trine formed a line between the receiver and the entrance to the Annihilation. A few astroseconds later, the receiver began to glow. A bright flash of light forced us to shield our optics. Once the light died down, a strange mech stood beside the receiver, which had exploded. "Lord Megatron, I come from Cybertron to serve you." The mech said, a slight British accent tinging his vocal track. The mech was black with red and green accents, with a small sort of visor covering his left optic, similar to a monocle. He was small, but not a minibot. He was probably around fifteen feet tall. "Designation?" Megatron asked. "Toxin." was the immediate reply. "Well then, Toxin, let's have a quick demonstration. Thrust, attack." Megatron ordered calmly.

Thrust didn't need to be told twice. He charged at the newcomer, who fell into a defensive position and let him come. Thrust pulled his arm back, aiming a right hook at the black mech's side. Toxin sidestepped, leaving Thrust to stumble after the punch that didn't connect. Toxin took that opportunity to pounce. His servo momentarily disappeared into his subspace, and came back armed with what appeared to be a throwing dart resembling a syringe. Before anyone had a chance to question his odd choice of weapon, he had leapt onto Thrust's back. Thrust attempted to get the much smaller mech off to no avail. Toxin stabbed the dart into the vital energon lines located at Thrust's neck. As the light blue liquid drained into the red mech's systems, he went rigid. Toxin calmly got down from his perch. All the black mech had to do was tap Thrust's shoulder, and the mech fell over, flat on his faceplates. He'd managed to win the fight and the only damage inflicted were the deep claw marks on Thrust's shoulders where Toxin had kept his grip. "Paralytic serum. My own formula. Spared him a full dose, so he should be able to move again within a megacycle or so." Toxin said with a casual shrug, cleaning off the needle end of the dart which still had light blue liquid within before it once again disappeared into his subspace.

Megatron seemed impressed. "Toxin, welcome to the Decepticon army." Megatron said. Toxin gave a brief bow. "Soundwave, sync him to out comm frequency." Megatron ordered. Soundwave nodded, wordless as usual. Toxin approached the TIC respectfully and opened a small hatch on the side of his helm. Soundwave raised a servo and extended a plug from his index finger. Inserting the plug into the data port on the side of Toxin's helm, the Decepticon comm link frequencies were downloaded to Toxin's processor, and Soundwave downloaded the code for Toxin's comm link. (As communications officer, Soundwave had all the codes to every Decepticon's comm link.) Toxin was now integrated into the Decepticon ranks.

"Lord Megatron." Reflector's voice came over the comm link. "Report." Megatron said curtly. "Energy signatures approaching. It's the other Decepticons." Reflector said in his odd chorus. Megatron growled. Toxin seemed mildly confused, but stayed quiet.

Soon enough, the other Decepticons showed up. The Coneheads had been dismissed, and had taken their paralyzed trinemate with them. "What is your business here?" Megatron demanded, not happy to see these mechs. "We come with a proposition." The other Megatron stated. Megatron quirked his optic ridge. "What would that be?" he asked. The other Megatron continued "Our enemies have allied with each other. It seems illogical for us to weaken ourselves by not doing the same. We are outnumbered, and you are unfamiliar with the battle tactics of our enemies, leaving us both at a disadvantage. Our goals are the same, so why not strive together to achieve it?" Megatron considered for a moment. He knew very well that these Decepticons would turn on them as soon as their goal was complete, but he also knew he would do the same. The other Megatron was most likely aware of this too. If this Megatron thought his forces were enough to defeat our Decepticon army despite the fact that they were vastly outnumbered, they may be good allies in battle. "I accept your proposal." Megatron stated, outstretching his servo. The other Megatron took it, sealing the deal we all knew to be temporary.

* * *

Wheeljack

Ratchet and I returned to the lab with Optimus in tow. The smiles on our faces slid off as soon as the lab door opened. The portal was wide open, and who knew how long it had been so? "Primus! What the frag happened?" Ratchet cried, dashing into the lab at my heels. I tapped a few keys at the control panel, instantly finding the problem. Oil had been dumped onto the controls, the tipped container still sitting on top of the console, the wrench that had knocked it over sitting beside it. I facepalmed as I realized that I must have knocked the oil over as I was leaving with Ratchet. "This thing's been open since we left! And that was half a megacycle ago! We've got to get this thing shut." I said. I tried to shut it off, but the control panel was fried. Ratchet was under the machine. He clambered back out quickly. "It's overheating. I can't get the panels open, they're sealed."

Optimus shocked us both by kicking the console, leaving a slight dent in the side, but the portal was shut off. The Prime shrugged as both our gazes were turned to him. "The humans call it percussive maintenance."

* * *

((AN: I've been wanting to use the percussive maintenance thing for a long time. Anyway, the portal being open allowed Shockwave's comm and Toxin through, but Shocky is cut off when the portal's not open, in case anything was unclear.))


	98. Skywarp's Sage Advice

((A/N: Okay, I HATED what I put up last chapter. I couldn't think of anything else for a while, so that abomination got posted. But I did get a way around it, but that also chopped off a lot of what's left to this story (Which actually isn't much more, guys.) So pretend the last chapter never happened. Oh, and Toxin's alt mode is a Ferrari 458 Italia, If you're curious.))

Toxin

"I want an explanation!" Megatron demanded. _Primus, I haven't even been here a megacycle and Megatron is already yelling at me._ I thought as the mech I'd just pledged allegiance to glared down at me. "Shockwave told me that you all disappeared one day, and you wouldn't answer any messages he sent. He always kept the communications console on, searching for your signal. It finally pinged. The signal was weak, but he tried anyway, and that's the communique you received." I reported dutifully. "But why in the Pit could Shockwave make contact _now_? What was stopping him before?" Megatron demanded again. All I could give him was a shrug of my shoulders. (Humans have the most convenient ways to display emotion wordlessly, as the internet had quickly taught me. Also, they have far too many languages. It's annoying.)

Megatron fumed and stalked off, plopping down onto his throne heavily. The command room went silent. Did that mean I was dismissed? Shockwave usually gave me the courtesy of telling me when I was meant to go. Even if I was dismissed, where was I dismissed to? I'd probably just get lost in the massive warship anyway. So I just moved off to the side and watched.

Megatron put a finger to the side of his helm and barked "Soundwave! Report to the bridge immediately." It wasn't long before a cobalt blue mech walked through the door. He stepped up to the front of the grey warlord's throne, giving him his space respectfully. "Dispatch Laserbeak. It's time to find out what Optimus Prime is up to." Soundwave only gave the slightest nod as acknowledgment. He turned away from the leader slightly as he reached up to his shoulder, where he depressed a silver button mounted there and his chest panel opened, releasing what appeared to briefly be a cassette before it transformed into a bird. Said bird quickly swooped around its master and came to land on the offered cobalt arm. Its sharp yellow optics instantly fixed on the TIC's face. Soundwave's voice betrayed just about as much emotion as his visored and masked face (That being none. ...Creepy much?) as he stated "Laserbeak: Eject. Operation: Espionage." The bird took off without preamble and flew out of the room. My attention was brought away from the exiting bird-bot as Megatron's voice rumbled in my direction. "What the frag are you still doing here?" he demanded angrily. Unfortunately, I had jumped when he'd addressed me, and I quickly (and quite ungracefully) scampered out of the room.

Once out in the hallway, I made sure I was out of view from the door before leaning against the wall. My internal fans kicked in to cool my systems which had heated in embarrassment. It was only a soft whirr which the fans created, but in the silent hallway, it felt as loud as a gunshot. That's when I noticed that a purple and black Seeker had stopped in the hall to stare at me. I met his gaze and he quirked an optic ridge at me. I felt like my faceplates were so warm they could be glowing.

"...Hi." I managed after an astrosecond.

"You're the newbie, right?" The Seeker asked.

"Yeah. That's me."

"Thought so. Toxin, right? Well, rule number one here on the Annihilation. Being useless is one thing, but just don't _look_ useless. That's what I live by. I only do half my reports, but as long as I turn them in whenever it pertains to Megatron's immediate interest, I get by."

"Oh." _Wow, Toxin. Very intellectual response._ I thought sarcastically.

Skywarp smirked congenially. "Toxin, can I call ya Tox? Walk with me."

"Oh. Okay." I said as I trotted to catch up with the Seeker who had already started down the hall.


	99. Kaboom!

Laserbeak

Activating my signal dampener as I approached the Ark, I swooped down and made short work of the vent cover in front of me and entered the ventilation system. As dumb as these Autoboobs were, I knew I was going to be detected eventually. I had to work fast. Quick pass over the command room. Nope, no higher-ups there. Meeting hall? Nope. No one there. Only one other place to check. I flew as quickly as possible in the claustrophobic space. (It was tight even for me.)

I reached the chief engineer's lab slower than I'd have liked. But once there, I was pleased to find something worth recording. I activated my microphone and watched intently. "Well, I think it should run again." the engineer cheerfully stated. (Ugh. Why are they always so fragging _happy?_) The medic nodded. "Fire it up." the medic said to the engineer, who was already at the controls. But controls to what?

My gaze shifted to the large ring set up at the opposite end of the lab. A bright spark of white-blue light formed and swirled in the center, growing until its edges were a mere foot from the surrounding ring, which appeared to be some sort of stabilizing frame. The medic was now at another console. "The readings are steady." he reported, typing at a few keys. "I've done it! I've made the bridge between parallel dimensions!" the engineer crowed with the enthusiasm of a crazed mech, throwing an arm over his helm and making a crushing motion with his raised hand. A pointed glare from the medic made the masked mech drop out of the overly dramatic pose he had adopted. "Ok, fine. _We all_ did it." he conceded. The medic's glare couldn't keep and a smile tugged at his mouth, amusement plain even as he tried to be serious. "Okay, 'Jack. We outta go tell Prime." "Which one? Having two is so confusing." "Both. C'mon, gearhead." The spark started to die down as the engineer completed a few more keystrokes.

That was all I needed. I took wing, heading for the exit. Not even half a cycle later, alarms blared. I'd been detected. There was yelling below me as I tried to increase speed. My wings scraped painfully at every tight corner in my haste, but I made it out. I was instantly greeted by a barrage of laserfire. Perfect.

Quite a few shots grazed by or singed me. Then one burned straight through my right wing. (No doubt that Primusfragged sharpshooter, Bluestreak.) I couldn't help but screech in pain, but I didn't let it slow me down. I just had to get the the rendezvous point. I made it out otherwise unscathed, the Autobots throwing a few parting insults and pot shots to no effect.

Sure enough, Soundwave was waiting at his pre-designated spot. He always was. I landed on the offered arm, where Soundwave immediately noticed the damaged wing. The index finger on his free hand sprouted a welder from the end of it, and Soundwave completed a field patch in seconds. He'd repaired the other cassettes and I so many times he could probably rebuild our entire systems from memory by now. Now that the thin energon leak in my wing was stopped, his chest cavity opened invitingly. I transformed and landed easily inside. I instantly felt warm as I allowed my systems to sync up with his and my self repair systems to kick in.

* * *

Soundwave

"Soundwave. Report." Megatron commanded the astrosecond I'd entered the command room. I wasted no time. Laserbeak did not object as I downloaded the newest recorded file from his processor, his current position within my cassette rack making the link simple. The voices of the Autobots' Chief Medical Officer and Chief Engineer came over my speaker system.

Once the recording was over, Megatron steepled his fingers. "So. We've made a jump across dimensions, then? Well, this technology seems like the Decepticons could use." the warlord paused, taking in this new information and forming a plan. "We'll need a distraction. What better trap than one using Prime's pet human as bait? Call in the new recruit. Since he likes playing with chemicals, we'll need him for an especially _explosive_ diversion."

I nodded and left to retrieve the recruit. I expanded my sensor net in search of the mech, finding him apparently sprinting west two hallways over. I made a route to intercept and walked away.

He nearly ran into me as he rounded the corner. He'd been looking over his shoulder as he made the turn, and when he saw me he barely had enough time to make a sloppy stop that had him falling onto his aft, but at least avoiding collision. A very torqued, and for some reason only half-painted, Ramjet also around the corner and made a hasty stop. His fury somewhat dissipated upon seeing a superior officer. Toxin's systems were obviously overheating, his fans loudly whirring and Ramjet letting blistering air out of his vents, the force of the air sending a few drops of whatever the seeker was covered in to scatter across the floor, a small puddle was already forming beneath him. "Megatron: demands recruit's presence. Ramjet: will cease pursuit." I ordered. Ramjet made to reply, angrily crying "But he-" I cut him off, "Unimportant." Ramjet cursed, but stormed off.

I dragged Toxin off the floor by the elbow. Once on his pedes, I turned my back on him and walked away. He scrambled to follow.

* * *

Toxin

The afternoon sun glinted off my sleek black paint. This was the first time I'd really gotten to use my new alt mode and Pit, I _liked_ it. But I wasn't out for a casual drive. A heavy device sat across the back seats of my alt mode. I arrived to the coordinates provided, and found the human's dwelling ...sorta. It was among hundreds of dwellings looking just like it, making it a bit difficult to pick out the right house, but I figured it out. (Stupid "townhouses".)

My target identified, I looked down at the garage door, my way in. _What, no locks or anything? Pathetic!_ I thought. I sent out a short signal matching the frequency of the electronic garage door opener, and the door opened up easily enough. Army crawling inside, (it was tight, but doable.) I found a corner next to the water heater that would be perfect. I pulled the bomb out of my chest compartment and wired it quickly but precisely. I then backed out and made myself scarce before any of the neighbors saw me.

I drove to the next neighborhood over, which was far enough from the blast sight, but close enough to see my work. I transformed back to root mode. With a smirk, I depressed the button on the detonator. I was quite proud of the loud explosive noise. I could see the sickly green smoke arising from the chemically engineered flames. _Megatron wanted a distraction and by Primus, he got one! _I thought, almost giddy at the success of my first mission.

I heard a small gasp from below me, so I turned around to find a human male gaping at me. "What're you lookin' at, fleshie?" I asked, just to mess with him. By the time his family unit and all the others on the street had also been drawn out (no doubt by my impressive explosion) I was already back in vehicle mode so no one but him really paid me any mind as I drove off.

Primus, this Decepticon stuff was _fun!_

* * *

(((A/N: If you guys wanna know what the Pit Skywarp did to poor Toxin, you can read "Never Trust Skywarp" which you'll find as a separate story on my profile. You don't need to, since it's not important to the plot, put I'm putting it out there.)))


End file.
